Peachy Chicken

My, it's been busy! The last day of classes was on Wednesday, so hooray for being done with classes! Alas, we must boo, for finals are still upcoming this week. Bah. It's been very difficult to focus on studying. Thursday night, the A/L crowd plus a few went and saw the midnight showing of Spiderman3, which I thought was much, much, much better than Spiderman2. I would definitely recommend it. After Spiderman, we headed over to Denny's at about 3:00am. It was entirely empty when we first arrived, but it started filling up after we sat down. The early morning crowd on a Thursday night/Friday morning is much sketchier than the weekend early morning crowds, apparently. There were a number of prostitutes with some very creative outfits, as well as a whole selection of lovely people...

On Friday night, David, Dylan, Cary, Erin, and I went and saw the Presidents of the United States of America over at PLU. It was quite excellent. I've never been to a concert before (unless you count Spice Girls when I was 10), so that was exciting. It was wonderful to see Cary and Erin again! After the concert we went to Dylan's room, where we proceeded to hang out until it was decided that we had better go to Denny's. The one out there is surprisingly less sketchy than the one out here... It had more a college crowd, as opposed to a prostitute/druggie crowd. Then last night, another A/L event was to be had, we all dressed up and went out to dinner at a small cafe nearby. It was quite nice. Afterwards, we all headed back, chatted for a bit, a few people wandered off to go watch the Beer Mile, and then David and I went to see Hot Fuzz with Cary and Dylan. If you enjoyed Shaun of the Dead, you will LOVE Hot Fuzz. It was fantastic.

And now, I really must go back to studying. :-) Ari

Ready for those sunny days

I am stuck on this paper; I feel like I'm not making any progress, and that's probably because I'm not actually making any progress. It's been a busy weekend. David and I took Soraya to the One-Acts on Friday night, as well as the student Art Show. Before that we went to Oma's house for dinner, which was delicious--what a nice change from SUB food! The One-Acts were great for the most part, very entertaining; although they did all seem to be of the same genre... The "faculty" One-Act was great; I really enjoyed it. It was really great to see Mr. Forier act in something too; it's a rare opportunity.

Yesterday, I had a waffle for breakfast. That was terribly exhilirating. It caused me no pain; probably because it's a waffle, which consists of fairly innocuous building materials--flour, milk, egg, etc. Then last night a bunch of girls from my hall, along with David and Cam, went over to my dad's house for dinner. We had a really wonderful time and another delicious dinner--two in a row! Party. We also made plans for our last couple weeks of schooltime. So much to do, really. I think we're going to go see the midnight showing of Spiderman3 on Thursday night. Then on Friday I'm going to a concert at PLU with David, Dylan, Erin, and Cary (and possibly Ryan, if he's in town for the weekend). I can't wait to see Erin! It's been far too long. She's going to give our fledling yearbook staff some tips on planning and organization too. That reminds me, have I mentioned that I joined the yearbook staff? We get paid some monthly salary, although I'm pretty sure it's not very large. Yet another project to add to my list. But it should be a lot of fun; I'm doing it along with the A/L girls... Christine and Maren are going to be the editors. Oh! And we convinced David to join the staff too. He's going to be the token sports guy.

David tried on some sweaters from Baba today. Finally picked those up from Oma's house, along with my laundry of two weeks ago. Mom and Soraya are heading out for Poland on Friday--how crazy. And Mehran is showing up again in just over a week! So very excited to see him. Other than that not much else to report at the moment, serious lots to do. I really must start working on this paper in seriousness. More soon! :-) Ari

"Food sans Everything, Please"

Hello all. It's a busy week, that's for sure! I'm presently taking a short break from my research of the Minangkabau, a matrilineal group in Indonesia that also happens to be Muslim. It's due a week from today...! And not a single page of it has yet been written. I can't believe I only have five more class days--two of which I only have Individual Fitness--so really, only three more days of academic class until... well... Reading Period... Finals Week... and then summer! First order of business is to clean out my closets at either house. Partially because I want to, but more so because I need to. I don't think I'm going to have any room for myself and my stuff once I move back into home for the summer. That sentence was not even gramatically correct.

German is making sense at the moment, more or less. We're learning the subjunctive right now. So much homework to keep up with, yet there's so little time left...

The rest of my week is going to be crazy, pretty much. I've got work tomorrow, plus I'm going to a dinner my dad is putting on for the office ladies. Haha! I'm an office lady. Well, the PC term is Professional Administratives Day, I do believe. And even though they have declared that the event takes a full week, if it were to be a day it would be today, April 25. I only decided to go after Baba told me that I could call and ask them to make me something not on the pre-set menu, as the menu options were undoubtedly going to cause my stomach some distress. I don't think the lady believed me when I told her I had very specific dietary restrictions that came down to low-fiber, low-fat, no vegetables... I'm pretty sure she just thought that I'm a very picky eater. So it sounds like I'll be dining on a no-cream-sauce-no-marinara-sauce-no-vegetable-laden-low-protein-olive-oil-dressed pasta... Who believes someone who says that they can't eat vegetables? Honestly. I wish I could eat a cucumber... That sounds so delicious at the moment... Mmm...

Then on Friday I'm going to Oma's house for dinner, then taking Soraya to the Art Show and the One-Acts. David's mom is going to be acting in one, along with Mr. Forier and Mr. Stubbs--and it was written by David's brother-in-law (and Mr. Moffitt is directing it). And then of course Lindsay is directing a show too! Then on Saturday there are various events, including dinner at my dad's house in the evening. Then Sunday, I know there's going to be lots of homework along with something that I can't quite remember at the moment. Busy busy busy. But it's better that way.

In other news, it sounds like Deniz might be able to come and visit this summer, which would be amazing! It also sounds like Christine and Maren might be coming back to UPS for a few days in June for some sort of yearbook conference. Did I mention that I joined the yearbook staff for next year? Yes, I know I'm crazy and I have no idea what I'm getting myself into. Good thing my best friend happened to the editor for a couple of years--I'm counting on Erin to teach me something about InDesign or whatever it is they use here.

I had better get back to work. :-D Ari

Prom Night Sans Prom

Hello there. I'm in the library right now, working on homework. Well, actually, I'm writing this blog post right now, but I will soon be working on homework. Last night was the Hui O Hawaii Club's Luau. I ended up taking Soraya and her friend Ashley to the show, since neither of them were going to prom this year. But first we went out to dinner at Silk Thai, which was quite delicious. We showed up at the Luau an hour early to make sure that we had good seats. The Luau was pretty amazing. Although I was partially horrified that Soraya probably saw more naked-man-flesh at the Luau than she would hopefully ever see at any prom/dance. But then again this was a family show--there were children there. They had a dance with just kids too, which was pretty cute. Overall, it was very impressive.

Following the Luau, we had ice cream with a few of my hall friends. Then Soraya, Ashley, David, and I went back to my dorm room where we played M.A.S.H. until Baba and Angi showed up to pick up Soraya and Ashley. I really do hope they had a good time. I think Angi was going to make breakfast for them this morning.

This last week was very busy. I had a paper on Southeast Asian women & industrialization due on Wednesday for my IPE class, then I had an Econ paper on the milk market due on Friday. Is everyone aware that the price of milk is expected to rise nine percent (roughly 30 cents) by this upcoming October? There you have it. The truth is out. My next paper is due May 2, and it's on the Minangkabau of Sumatra (they're a matrilineal group). And then of course there are plenty of quizzes to attend to, and then finals! Goodness, I'm ready for those be over.

Not much else to report at the moment, hopefully I'll write again sooner rather than later...
:-) Ari

Captain Insane-O

Well it's been very busy lately, and it just keeps getting busy as the end of the semester comes closer. Just 26 days until the last day of Finals week--and only about two weeks until the last day of class. So there are, of course, lots of papers to be attended to and quizzes/tests/etc. to study for. I registered for classes a week+ ago--it looks like I'll be taking Introduction to International Political Economy, Social Scientific Argumentation, Applied Statistics, and then either Law & Ethics or Psychology. I'm undecided at the moment, and it also depends on the waitlisting situation. I've pretty much given up on getting into an Accounting class for next semester.

In other news, yesterday I did some homework in the morning. Then Lindsay came to campus and went to lunch with David and me. Then we went rockclimbing where Lindsay works, which was quite fun, although I hadn't been rockclimbing in three years and it was a bit nerveracking at first. Although I am now belay-certified, if only just barely... So I'll have to go again sometime soon. Then we went to Dairy Queen, and got milkshakes (well, I got a vanilla cone--luckily DQ uses almost frozen yogurt rather than real ice cream). Then last night we went to a 60th birthday celebration for Sharon, complete with live music. So it was a good day yesterday--and productive, too. Oh, and how could I forget? Yesterday morning David and I went to the Fitness Center, and he showed me how to do some weightlifting for my arms. I think he's going to have to accompany me a few more times yet. My arms are quite sore today... It's been a while. This being sick business put me out of commission for far too long.

Today has been pretty much solid homework all day, until now. Oh, one other interesting fact about yesterday; David's bed collapsed. More on that front later. Easter went quite well last weekend, although I was rather tired by the time everyone arrived. There was much breakfast to be cooked. Next weekend is Relay for Life, which my team is still trying to raise money for--so if anyone is interested in contributing to cancer research, please let me know, and I'll send you a link to my donation page, where you can donate online. It's rather nifty.

The weather's been pretty nice yet again today. Soraya's birthday party is the weekend, I hope everyone survived the night together. I'm now thinking about how to plan Kathryn's birthday party. I think we should go sleep in yerts on the Washington coast. Sounds exciting, right? And probably cheaper than going to Sasquatch... Well, that's all my news for now, but I'll write again soon--hopefully sooner than last time.

:-) Ari

Windy Weekend of Wheatgrass

It was a pretty good weekend. I went and saw Blades of Glory on Friday night with David, Matt, Corydon, and Cary. It was pretty excellent--I've never seen a Will Farrell movie before (unless you count about thirty minutes of Anchorman), but I really enjoyed this. It was entirely thoughtless and entertaining, and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to something lighthearted and comical. So there was that. We also had TCBY, which I recently discovered makes a good alternative to ice cream for me (which my stomach can't really handle), as frozen yogurt is 96% fat-free. Hooray for that!

Also on Friday, before all this excitement, I talked to my academic advisor about class registration and which classes I should take next semester. It sounds like I might now be contemplating either an International Political Economy (IPE) major with a business minor, which could work out really well for me. I guess I'll have to see what Baba thinks; but I don't really need to make a decision for another semester or two. There's a fair amount of overlap anyway.

On Saturday, I spent most of the day with Cary. I started out doing IPE homework, then went to lunch with Cary (I had Pho, Cary had Chow Mein--it was all very good; if you're looking for a good, cheaper Vietnamese restaurant let me know and I can pass on specifics). Then Cary and I did some Easter shopping for the Easter event happening at my mom's house on Saturday. We hit up the DollarTree and Target. And I also purchased a microwave cart (some rolling car thing with two shelves and a wood top) that I've moved all of my food and odds and ends onto, rather than having it all sit on my second desk. I had run out of room for my books and homework stuff, so this is a big improvement. I probably shouldn't be moving too much stuff in, however, as we've really only got a few more weeks of school...

On Sunday, I did some homework and watched some Fresh Prince of Bel-Air with David in the morning. Then five girls from my floor, David, and I all went out to my mom's house for Cees DeBedar. That went really well; it was quite fun, and there was quite a bit of good food. I didn't get to socialize with the family members too much, but hopefully that was okay. We're planning on going up to Seattle sometime soon, which should be fun--part of my Asian Initation or something like that...

Today was nothing exceptional. I had an absolutely terrible German quiz (hence, I'm beginning to meet with the German Tutor again as of tomorrow morning). I had my new cupcake cookbook come in the mail from Amazon today, which I am very excited about. At least 120 recipes for me to try out! What lucky friends I might end up having if they're the ones these are distributed to. I'm got a couple of papers that I've started working on too. I'm going to have two due the week of April 16, so I need to get a move on. Then there's my big IPE research paper that will be due in May. And hopefully I just survive German class at this point. It looks like I'm probably not going to be taking a language next semester. Although I'm seriously looking into community college language classes.

That's all the news for now, but I'll continue to update whoever does read this... I think Oma might be the only one at this point... But Swiss friends, if you read this, there might be mail coming your way sometime soon... As soon as I find some 84-cent stamps or break down and use three 39-cent stamps on each one...

Until the tummy aches... More soon in other words... :-) Ari

Celia Sprue

Well, in all honesty, there's not much to report. At least I don't think there is... I just got back from the surgeon's office, no new answers. I had a CT scan yesterday for all this stomach pain I've been having, but I feel like we might not learn a whole lot from that either. Mostly, I think I've decided that my digestive system just needs a break; so I'm going to be very nice to it and hopefully it will decide that it's ready to make peace. And the surgeon agrees that this might be an excellent choice for the time being--just taking no action. (Although my mom came up with another theory--that I may be allergic to gluten?)

In other news, most of my homework for tomorrow is done, although I do need to start working on my research paper. Actually, I should probably head over to the library and check out some books right now because I feel like I'm probably not going to do it later. It's going to be a busy next few weeks--I've got a couple of papers to write, grades to bring up, German verbs to memorize, RA orientations to attend, work to do... and a room to keep clean. And how could I forget? Class registration.

On Sunday, I think a few girls from my dorm are going to come to my mom's house for Cees Debedar (sp?). That should be fun. O! And I received a postcard from Portugal yesterday from my dear friend Alyssa! It was quite exciting--I've never received a postcard from Portugal before.

The weather was quite nice yesterday, and it is quite nice again today. I love the sunshine. All right, I think that's enough for now. I might take a bit of a nap before going to Individual Fitness in a little bit. And how could I forget?! On Tuesday night, Cary came to campus for dinner, and then Cary, David and I went and saw 300, which was amazing! I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys epic-action movies. Then last night, Cary came to campus for dinner again, and we went and got pizza (mine cheeseless, of course).

More soon, when I have something more interesting to write or remember... :-) Ari

Father Killed by Ninjas, Need $$$ for Karate Lessons

I was glad to learn this past weekend that the fair homeless people of Seattle, or at least one of them, has decided to start appealing to Seattlite humor rather than their respective senses of moral duty. Imagine a very homeless-looking person in front of Westlake Center on a particularly windy and torrentially rainy Saturday morning with a four-foot tall sign reading the above title of this post.

In other news... Well, Soraya and I went up to Seattle on Saturday morning, but we ended up staying only through lunch as the new medication I was recently put on made me super-sick (I was silly enough to take it before driving up to Seattle without knowing what effect it would have on me). After all that, I ended up at Baba & Angi's house for a Norouz celebration-dinner with much family, food, etc. That was nice. On Sunday I went with David to his house for his mom's birthday--there was a large Parker clan gathering, babies included. After lunch (more like dinner, even though it was at noon), everyone taller than four feet trundled off to the movie theater to see Amazing Grace, a movie I would recommend. Even though it was a movie about abolition, I don't think it could have been funnier--funny in a witty-dialogue sort of way that is. Those Brits have an excellent sense of humor sometimes. So there you have it, go see it if you need something to and it's still in theaters.

Today was relatively unremarkable. I went to my classes, and I've been working on homework all day. I've finished my IPE reading for the week, the German homework for the night (minus the studying for the Verb Quiz on Friday), and finished one chapter and one assignment for Economics.

O, in other news, just to keep everyone updated on my weirdo health condition... I went to see my primary physician on Friday, and she has no idea what's wrong with my stomach. So I had a ton of bloodwork done on Friday after my appointment, and I'm getting a CT scan of my abdomen on Wednesday. I'm not really worried about the scan nearly so much as I'm working about having to drink the barium for it. I also have an appointment with my surgeon on Wednesday. It's going to be a doctor-ful day. And in other news, I have been put back on my un-exciting bland diet--as I described it to Deniz, it's low-fiber, low-fat, low-DELICIOUSNESS.

Tomorrow I've got work and it sounds like I might see Cary! He's in town, hooray for that! O, I should mention that I saw Kathryn off on Friday--well, sort of, I went over to her house and say goodbye before she left for the airport. I think that counts as seeing her off. Back to Maine, she goes! It does sounds like Cary and I will be heading out on a Cary-Ari date tomorrow.

I really need to put away my clothes and organize myself once again, but I've been far too focused on homework. I guess that's a good thing that I'm not trying to distract myself from the things that really require getting done--like reading. What does it matter that my room's a mess? Well, not much else to report at the moment, I'll be studying tomorrow morning, going to Fitness class, then off to work! More soon, :-) Ari

Springtime Brings Post #100

Today is the first whole day of Spring and my was it a pretty day... until this afternoon. Okay, this just happened and it was quite startling... Alyssa just came by looking for Anna, who I have assumed was not in the room since I got back from Aerobics... and then it turns out she's been in the room this whole time, I just haven't noticed. My skills of observation are less than satisfactory apparently. That was really a little creepy. Ahhhh...

Ah well. I can't even remember what I was going to write about, I was disturbed enough. Mostly I was going to write about Norouz, I think... And now I'm stuck, I've hit a block in my head, so I'm going to have to excuse myself at the moment and make a run to the bank. But more soon, never fear.

:-) Ari

Portland Reunion

We just returned from our Portland adventure last night. David, Kathryn, and I drove down to Portland Thursday afternoon and spent Thursday, Friday and Saturday hanging out with Erin and Cary. It was quite nice to be reunited. On Thursday we went into downtown, somewhere around 23rd street, and checked out some shops, etc., then we had dinner at "the Bon" (Lewis & Clark's cafeteria). Then we went and saw the theater production that's going on right now, Iphigenia, the Greek tragedy and Bash, which was a set of two monologues. It was all really good. We met lots and lots of Erin's friends, including Erin's roomie, Lishka, who is super-nice. On Friday just David, Kathryn, and I went into downtown. Parking didn't go so well to begin with, as I ended up in some crazy parking lot where everyone double-parks and blocks one another in, and I had to back out of it. That was bad. Then we ended up parking across the street in a garage, where they take your keys in case you end up blocking someone in. It was rather sketchy since they really had no apparent system for remembering whose keys belong to whom/which car. So I was relatively convinced that my car was not going to be there when I got back. We proceeded to check out NikeTown and walk around the riverfront before getting lunch at Chipotle, which is comparable to Taco Del Mar. I remember all my Franklin friends were semi-obsessed with the delicousness of Chipotle, but I had never been... I don't know if we even have any in Washington...

We met up with Erin and Cary again around three in the afternoon on Friday, picked up a parking permit and David, Erin and Cary started up a game of four-square. This ended up attracting an enormous number of people, of course, as it always does for some reason. So that was entertaining. And all this time the weather was in the high-60s, low-70s, it was quite nice. We ended up going to a Cajun restaurant for dinner called Montage, which had good macaroni and not so good Gumbo and terrible service. The food was fairly good, but the service was pretty awful even though they make amazing foil animals out of the leftovers.

Then yesterday morning all of us (except Erin who had to do a tour and then go to rehearsal) went to the Saturday market then took the MAX over to the area Powell's is in, checked out a few thrift stores, went to Rocco's for pizza (well David and Cary had pizza, my system can't exactly handle it yet), then eventually went over to Powell's bookstore, browsed around for a while and then got seats at the PostSecret lecture by Frank Warren, which was very cool. After that we walked back to the car, took a couple pictures by the riverfront and then headed back home. And that's all to report for now, but more soon. :-) Ari

We're Carnivorous Too!

Yesterday was quite the day. David and I took Soraya up to the Pacific Science Center in Seattle; we got there around 10:30am. We were possibly the tallest exhibit participants there (yes, even myself)--anyone else our height was being dragged around by a toddler or elementary schooler... But no matter! We had a delightful time anyway. Our favorite exhibits were probably the ones involving mirrors that make you look funny and the shadow room, where you can pose in some funny way, a light flashes, and then your shadow is stuck on the wall. After going through four buildings of exhibits, including the featured Grossology exhibit, we went over to the IMAX theater and saw Hurricane on the Bayou, which was pretty amazing.

Sometime around 2:00pm we left the Pacific Science Center looking for other adventures. We had planned on driving down to Pike Place, but then realized that it would cost us just as much to take the Monorail roundtrip as it would to park for a couple of hours in downtown. So, of course, we took the Monorail. We had lunch at Westlake Center (Greek food for all), then headed down to Pike Place. We bought Oma some tulips, picked up some of those delicious itty-bitty donuts near the place with the fish-throwing (the donut-man puts on quite a show too, apparently), and then went over to Three Sisters and picked up a couple of cheese danishes for my mom (as well as a blueberry scone for David, a pretzel for Soraya, and a chocolate chip cookie for me). The man at the bakery ended up throwing in another cookie for a free since it was broken, although we couldn't really find any defect with it.

Then as we were headed back toward the Monorail, these two guys were putting on a pretty amazing show on the corner outside Nordstrom--the one was playing the bagpipe, the other was beating on makeshift drums and bottles, and they had an itty bitty dancing robot in front of them! It was pretty spectacular. So we hung out and listened to them for a bit before heading back up to the Monorail, which ended up being temporarily out-of-commission translating into a 25-minute wait. We didn't want to walk back at that point because it was pouring down rain. And it just started raining harder by the time we were walking back to the car. Then we safely drove home, stopped by the dorms to pick up a few odds and ends (like laundry), dropped David off at his house, and continued onto to Oma's hosue for dinner (ghoulash).

Then we came home and watched a show on Killer Squid. And we haven't done anything too much exciting today, just some cleaning, and for Soraya, some homework. We were going to go to Art & Soul, but I'm afraid that plan has been postponed by Soraya's homework. And then David and Shahla and the boys are coming over for dinner. So that's happy. And I'll post some Pacific Science Center pictures soon.

:-) Ari

Just like Ong-Bak, Thai Warrior

Not much to report. I had my Econ midterm today, now I just have a German quiz on Friday, and then I'm homefree! Mostly I wanted to write this because David almost accidentally snapped my arm, much in the same manner that Ong-Bak Thai warrior purposefully snaps his enemies' limbs. If you have not seen Ong-Bak or The Protector, I would recommend renting one or both sometime in the near future.

Alyssa and Anna (and inherently, myself) are watching The Departed. What an excellent movie. I've mostly been up to lots of studying, went to work yesterday (and did many hours of service filing, the bane of my existence...), and cycling on the little reclining stationary bikes in the Fitness Center. So, there you have it. O, and a great deal of planning for our Oregon Adventure.

That's all for now! More soon. :-) Ari

Back in the planning business

Goodness, what a good day! My Econ homework is done, my IPE homework is done, my German review isn't due until Wednesday... I just need to study for my Econ test (on Wednesday) and my German quiz (on Friday). In other news, today we had beautiful weather! Well, by Washington standards. There was sunshine and it was 55 degrees--actually according to AccuWeather, it's still 55 degrees...

Apart from the weather, other things have been good too. I talked to both Kathryn and Erin today and figured out some spring break plans. Kathryn's getting in super-late on Wednesday night it sounds like, so we're going to leave for Portland on Thursday. Then we're going to drive David down to Eugene to hang out with Matt and Corydon and maybe spend some of the day down there. Then Kathryn and I are going to go back to Portland, I think. Plans are not set in stone just yet, but they will be soon.

David and I are planning on taking Soraya up to the Pacific Science Center this weekend to see the Grossology exhibit and maybe seen an IMAX movie. That should be fun. Anna (my roomie) is having surgery on Friday; it sounds like her mom is flying over to be there with her and to take her home for Spring Break, so that's good. I was a bit worried about her having to be alone! Other Spring Break plans... We might go out to Port Townsend one day, maybe go rock climbing to visit Lindsay, but mostly I think we're just going to hang out around here and spend some time at home. O, then of course there's some work to be done, I'm sure.

I talked to my dad today and it sounds like I'll be spending about three weeks on the boat, although it doesn't sound like we'll be heading up to Alaska this summer. That means I've already booked up five of my summer weeks--three to boating and two to Resident Assistant training. Hopefully that will still leave lots of time for sunshine and seeing people.

We went over to David's house for his family birthday party yesterday. His mom made us reuben sandwiches and then we had lemon cake. The babies were quite adorable.

Hmm... in other news, David and I ate cheeseless pizza from the Cellar at school. It was good. That's about it. More soon. :-) Ari

Sunny Blizzards!

Things are looking up. I had all the right answers on my German homework this morning, and I feel like I did the kind of job on my IPE midterm this morning that would make Mr. Middlebrooks proud. Then I had two letters in the mail (one from Mr. Middlebrooks, one from Deniz) and my Christmas present from David (a t-shirt that reads "Ladies is Pimps Too!"). Pictures may follow sometime in the near future. And I'm pretty much caught up on homework now--but I have my third meeting with the German tutor tomorrow morning, and I'm meeting with my Econ prof on Friday for the who-knows-what time. Goodness me, I like being productive.

I also did a bit of shopping today. I bought myself a new pair of shoes for the first time in... I don't even know. I'm just been wearing my green Vans forever now, since I decided I couldn't wear slippers everywhere any more (and I left my hiking boots in Switzerland). But these shoes are much more attractive. They're black with a thick reddish-pinkish stripe on the side. They make me happy. I also bought some giftwrap for David's birthday present (his birthday's tomorrow--March 1st). Then I went to the grocery store and bought some things like plastic dinnerware and milk and yogurt-covered pretzels. Every time I entered or exited a store there was different weather. Enter the store with sun, exit with snow or vice versa. Craziness.

David and I went over to my dad and Angi's house for dinner last night, since I haven't seen them in over a month, and Angi made lasagna, which was qutie delicious. It was all quite nice. O, and Soraya had just returned from Joshua Tree, so we got updated on her travel adventures.

That's about all I can up with at the moment. I bought some stamps today! Hooray for that! I forgot to buy international stamps though, darn. That just occured to me. Did I spell that right? I feel like no, I didn't. O, and I need to turn in my RA contract tomorrow!

Things are steadily improving...

Hello all! I know it's been a while since I last wrote, but things have continued to be rather crazy, although I am happy to report my recovery is coming along quite well. Eating yesterday resulted in no symptoms, whatsoever. True I still need to watch the amount of fat in things, but I can now eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches without a problem! That's all that really matters, right?

In other wonderful news, I am going to be an RA (Resident Assistant) next year! I am incredibly excited about it. I'm going to be stationed in University. I was rather nervous about it, especially since I had to turn in my application late and do my interview early (thank you, gallbladder).

Yesterday, David and I participated in a Relationship Study. We're not supposed to discuss it with people in case they might take it--you know, to make sure they don't know exactly what they're doing. It was pretty interesting, and we got paid $15 each. In three or four months they're going to let us know our "results" and give us a full "debriefing" of the study.

The word "debriefing" reminds me of 24... You know, the TV show? Anna and Alyssa had started watching, I think, the first season. So intense.

Anyone watch the Oscars last night? David and I went over to my mom's house for homework and dinner and ended up watching a fair amount of the Oscars.

Which reminds me that Matt and Corydon came up from Oregon this weekend, so I went over to Matt's house with them on Friday and watched The Departed. On Saturday night, Corydon, David and I went and saw Reno 911 (I would recommend it) while Matt and Amanda went to see Hannibal Rising. Before that Matt, Amanda, David and I went to The Ram. I had never been there before...

I have a lot of homework to do today, so I'm going to go work on that now. Especially since I'm working tomorrow which = not much time to do other things tomorrow. And I think I'm going to meet up with someone to study for IPE this evening.

More soon! :-) Ari

O, Cursed Gallenblasse

It has been quite a while since I last actually posted, more than a month I believe. I have not been having the best of luck during the first few weeks of my second semester in college. I think everyone has now been informed that due to biliary dyskinesia (essentially, a non-functioning and very angry gallbladder), I had to have my gallbladder removed on Friday. I ended up staying the night at the hospital and leaving for Oma's house on Saturday afternoon, where I have been more or less stationed ever since. My stomach has been pretty funny looking between the bandages over my four little incisions and the fact that it's been full of gas from the surgery (for laproscopic surgery, they fill you up with carbon dioxide in order to manuever better inside you). I have been able to eat a bit more normally, but now my digestive system has to figure out how to function without a gallbladder (which generally produces bile and helps you process food, especially rich foods). This has been an exhausting three weeks. Due to missed classes, I ended up having to drop my Statistics class, and now I'm hoping that I can keep up enough in German class that I don't have to medically withdraw from school. German is not looking so good right now, but I'm hoping that I can make super-efforts to get caught up and hopefully get a passing grade in the class.

In other news, not related to my gallbladder (and I'll admit, there's not much of that right now), I am applying to be a Resident Assistant next year. I ended up being allowed an extension on the application (I missed it because of, well, you know), and they were nice enough to let me interview before my surgery (I interviewed on Thursday, everyone interviewed over the weekend). I wasn't able to participate in the "Group Session" segment on Saturday, so I'm hoping that won't weaken my odds. I'll have the news on the RA-ship on Friday, so I'll keep you posted.

Oh, did I mention that I have a roomie now? I'm sure you all know that, but for anyone who hasn't been updated, I do indeed have a roommate. She's from Hawaii. That's been going pretty well. I've really been gone so much lately, though, that I haven't gotten to really know anyone. So that's been sort of tough. I joined (or am in the process of joining) a Relay for Life team with the rest of my floor, so hopefully I'll get to meet some people that way.

Soraya is going to Joshua Tree on Sunday, and I must say I'm quite jealous. I'm getting very antsy, as I've been cooped up for the last three weeks and haven't really been anywhere or done anything apart from fighting with my gallbladder and struggling to keep up in school. But Tacoma, Seattle, and Portland are in the near future (at least those are my plans). I would excited just to go to the Grand if that gives you an idea of the extent of the excitement I've been allowed.

All right, that's all for now, but I promise I'll start keeping this up again. Oo, and I have my follow-up meeting with the surgeon on Friday to make sure everything looks good and to have my incisions checked out. More soon! :-) Ari

Gallbladder Removed.

Surgery went fine. Going back to bed.

-Ari

Gallbladder Update

Hello everyone, just wanted to let those faithful few who are still checking in on this blog that I am planning on keeping it up, I've simply run into some health issues lately, which have prevented me from doing much of anything other than trying to keep up in school! Now, that was one terrible sentence.

In any case, you can probably start expecting some good solid posts late next week once my life starts to get back in order. And for those who are wondering:

I will be having my gallbladder surgically removed on Friday morning. I check in at 6:00am, and surgery is set to begin at 8:00am.

There you have it folks, and I'll write more soon!

Smile, Ari

Yeah, that's right, I answer the phone.

Today was my first day working at the dealership; I filled out a fair amount of paperwork (mostly lots of policies that I have to acknowledge) and then I learned how to man the phones. It was quite flustering. It really did seem as if the moment phone duty was passed on to me, at least eight lines started ringing and flashing and beeping at the same time. Jessica, the receptionist who was/is training me on phone duty, had to help me quite a bit. Then I kept forgetting to say certain things before transferring the call... I would transfer the call then say something. Hmm. And have I mentioned my short-term memory capabilities? Not so excellent. I don't know how I'm going to remember who's holding for who on which line when I'm on my own. Hopefully this will be one of those things that I get better at; I think it is.

In other news, I met Kathryn's SAM today! It was quite exciting, and I quite approve. We are all going up to Seattle tomorrow to spend the day. Goodness! :-) Ari

Dance Pick-Up

There have been a few firsts the last day or two that I decided were necessary to record. To begin with, I received my first speeding ticket yesterday... on the ISLAND of all places! That was an unfortunate experience. Soraya and her friend were both in the car at the time. So I guess there goes my perfect record. Goodness, police are rather intimidating. In any case, I did a great deal of driving yesterday--first from Erin's house to my house, then from my house to Megan's house, then from Megan's house to the mall, then from the mall to Matt's house, Matt's house to my house, my house to the Club, the Club to the movie theater, the movie theater to Megan's house, Megan's house to my house, my house to the Club, and the Club to my house. My goodness. I was the family chauffeur yesterday. And I feel I spelled that wrong.

I was also my dad and Angi's designated driver last night, since they were having a business post-New Year's party (rather than the usual company Christmas party). It sounds like it went quite well. They were quite entertained that I was picking them up. This time it was me dropping off and picking up my parents from the dance. How funny things can be sometimes. We ended up getting home a bit after midnight, then I slept in this morning. Then Erin and I went to the mall to pick up Soraya's purse, which she had left at Nordstrom's yesterday, and which had been miraculously turned in to Lost & Found. How amazing is that? I also picked up a new battery charger for my dad's camera, and then Erin and I went to Costco and bought one bag of dried mangoes as a Christmas gift for one of Erin's friends back at L&C. We felt rather out-of-place between all the loaded shopping carts that surrounded us. Then the man in front of us in line gave us a lecture about all the sugar in dried mangoes, which I found very upsetting. He kept telling us we had better read the nutrition facts and wouldn't give it a rest until Erin mentioned that the mangoes were a GIFT to a FRIEND. LectureMan had loaded up on eggs, milk, bananas, and protein shake mix. Yeah.

So nothing too extraordinary today. I start working tomorrow morning! And Kathryn's boyfriend is coming to visit tomorrow--I'm so excited to meet him!! We're going to go up to Seattle on Tuesday to show him around; Erin and I were figuring out how we could show him as much as possible for as little as possible (cost-wise). If you have any suggestions do let us know. I think we might do lunch in the UDistrict. And I simply can't wait for my pizza-making and train cake party on Thursday. Hooray!

That's what I've been up to. I really need to start getting my things together, as I move in next Saturday. But I sort of want to see my room and figure out what I need as I go rather than buying everything all at once. All right, more soon! :-) Ari

Changing homes, shopping for fridges

I have now been back home for 18 days, and I must say, I've been quite happy. I guess I had better rewind to some of the highlights, fill you in on what's been happening, although I imagine my audience may have changed at this point from the people back home to all the people I've left behind. So I guess there still might be some purpose for me to continue keeping up my blog.

My flights from Lugano to Zurich, Zurich to New York, New York to Seattle were all pretty all right. Although maybe my flight from New York to Seattle was rather miserable... My two seatmates included a hypochondriac and a very old Russian woman. The former was rather young and within the first couple minutes of her landing, I knew that she had married a military man who was now stationed in Frankfurt, she'd never been away from her mom/home/seven pets for more than seven weeks, and she had recently had a breast reduction by some genius German surgeons? She also couldn't speak a lick of German, but she nevertheless translated for the old woman who could speak only Russian. It was a long seven hours--especially since we spent two hours on the tarmac for no apparent reason; the pilots couldn't even quite figure out the delay, they just knew we weren't ready to go.

Now I arrived back home at the same time that over a million Washington residents were without power, and I had assumed that I too would be without power (I mean, we live in the Boonies). Even the Customs officials in New York were asking me about the power back home. Let's put that aside for the moment, however. Did I mention that Alyssa (my Barcelona buddy) was on the plane from NY to SeaTac with me? We arrived back at SeaTac at some unreasonable hour and shot down the escalators to the trains that take you to baggage claim. Just our luck--the power to the trains was out, and it had been for a solid 20-30 minutes prior to our arrival. So we were stuck for quite some time before we heard news that they would be busing us, then as soon as the buses were ready the power came back on, and we were able to catch the first train back to baggage claim. And there I was met by my own sweet, dear family--Mom, Mo, Soraya--and David. Well, actually, David was the first person I saw as he had been stationed with my suitcases (the baggage had come through although the passengers had not), and my Mom and Soraya had positioned themselves one level above with a very large Welcome Home Ari banner. It was quite adorable. And Mo had gone to get our escape vehicle. Then, this is the best part, miracle of miracles, the power turned back on at our dear house just twenty minutes or so before we arrived back there! What a delightful way to come home! To think, if my plane had gotten in on time, I would've been coming home to a dark, chilly house. I forgive you Delta.

And things have been a whirl since then. I went up to Seattle for some Christmas shopping and to see Irving Berlin's White Christmas at the 5th Avenue with my Mom and Soraya for two days and one night. Then I came back, saw some friends that night, saw my dad and Angi the next day after they arrived back from their cruise, saw Mehran and his roomie Eli. Had multiple Christmases with multiple branches of the family. Then went to California for six days with my dad, Angi, and Soraya. We got back into SeaTac on New Year's Eve and from there I went to Erin's house to see friends. Mehran is in India now. And then I've been to the Honda dealership twice between yesterday and today to choose and then to pick up my new Element, which happens to be a delightful Kiwi green. And now I'm preparing for a party at my Mom's house tomorrow night, and dozens of other things, including starting work at the dealership on Monday. It's good to be busy again.

Oh! And I have a roommate, so I'm looking forward to meeting her too. It seems a little amazing to me that I'll be starting at UPS in just ten days. What a big change from Switzerland. It all seems a little surreal now. Ah, and hopefully Alyssa will be attending my party tomorrow night--I wouldn't mind a mini-Franklin reunion. :-) Ari (More soon, I promise I'll be better now that I'm getting more settled in.)