To Do list

My current to-do list (well, one of many) reads:

--Woolf (as in, read more Virginia)
--find inner calm

Buy:
--new running shoes
--leggings

Hoping the activity that requires the new shoes and the leggings feeds into the second item on the list. But I also need to be doing more yoga. Did an hour of it yesterday, so that's a good start.

Off to read about Liz Garret's adventures in India in Eat Pray Love.

and then there are the days you wish your thermos were full of gin and your gaze as fierce as lightening.

San Fran-a-lot

To answer a question: Yes, Mom, Alcatraz was "liberating." dot dot dot.

But seriously. A more accurate sense of liberation would be the one my stomach has experienced.

Witness:
(oh, my...I hesitate to write this downs) downs? yes downs.
So because of writing inadequacies of the moment, foodtime ingestions will be summarized as: Many forms of cow, fish, crustacean, and pig. And they were delicious.

okay.

..
are you curious yet?

...

there were...eyeballs, some brainz (I HAVE GONE TO THE ZOMBIE SIDE OF THE FORCE), some (beef) liver, heart, clam, crab, sweetbreads, cheese, salami, tuna, bread, VINO, rum, gin (!), IN-N-OUT BURGER wif Aminal fries, fish taco, beer (local and non), SEA SALTED FUDGE BROWNIES (I wish I could be sea salted. That sounds exotic), "special" meatloaf...wait, what was in this meatloaf, friend? Answer: chicken livers, pork, veal, pistachios, prunes, milkbreadeggsthymeblahblah what did I ask for the whole recipe darlink no i do not need a comma you nazi typing whore. russian crazy bitch. AND GODDAMMIT STOP SNORTING. (no you do not laugh too loudly. Only your mother would say such a thing.) OYSTERS! (it was a wee one. and my was it taystie)

KAMILLA'S MOTHER IS STOMPING! DA, DARLING!

More lazing now.
Mmm vacation.

Lessons learned:

San Francisco is a fog magnet. (and a pretty one at that)
Graffiti is encouraged in the Mission District.
You should always "Take your chances"... and "collect" tattoos.
Bourbon and cornflakes CAN BE (in) ICE CREAM
You really can't escape eating chez les Khaydarov. ("We're Jewish. That's just not happening.")
Sea lions smell BAD. like raunchy armpit. ick.
That scratch on the car? It's not from an accident after too many cocktails. No, it's not. (and it wasn't too many cocktails...Only two... wait, two is what we told her father...Only three. Three cocktails. Cockatiels... We took our chances)...
Birds are protected on Alcatraz Island. And "Rangers" want to tell you ALLL about them. Anyone whose title is "Ranger" makes me wonder where and how you get a title like that. And makes me distrust your authority. Really, Ranger just makes me think of a raccoon I used to be familiar with when I was ten. And by that, I mean I was not "hiking the Appalachian Trail" with this raccoon...I just read about his exploits in Ranger Rick. Exploits? Who is this Raccoon? Why is he capitalized?
Most men in SF are gay. And hence unattainably cute.
This is food heaven. Heaven for foodies, rather. Because for food...this is its worst nightmare. This is where food comes to be 'et.
I should not talk to people from Tennessee when Milla is in my presence. Because I *will* get made fun of. I'm sorry if when I talk to Bree..(-ie? -eigh?) I have to respond to her accent in kind. It's just natr'l! And polite. I can't wait to go back to the S'th and have some s'p on the c'ch. I hurt my toe. 'ch!
Spam-a-lot is one of the best and most entertaining musicals. Thanks for getting it in my head for FOREVER, itunes.

This is maybe too many lessons for one post. maybe. I hesitated right there. FAMILY TIME! (we stayed home today aaand laaazed. Father is skeptical of unproductivity.) kai bai.

Love from San Francisco/San Jose/Campbell, CA.

Fear no Chi

<---Nevermore!

<---UPass, you served me well. So maybe it was worth it to take organic chemistry. So I could stop at Grand and grab a bottle of wine and some brie and crackers at Trader Joe's whenever I'd had a bad lab and not feel a DAMN BIT OF REMORSE about spending money on the train BECAUSE I'D ALREADY PAID TO HAVE MY LIFE DRAINED OUT OF ME THIS SUMMER BY AROMATIC RINGS AND RESONANCE STRUCTURES




Today is last day in Chi-town.
I have said goodbyes as follows (and in no particular order):
1.) to Paul, mon ami de trois ans
2.) to Lake Michigan, so polluted that I had to pour out the water I collected for a mini aquarium and use the water fountain that was so close in proximity to the lake that I count it as lake... (right?)
3.) to the Med, where I ate a delicious veggie sandwich on Monday with lovely Steff and Paul
4.) to Jimmy's where I had a burger, fries, and a pint of beer at 3 on a Saturday!! only the second time in there when it was still light outside...
5.) to Cynthia, the most wonderful painting conservator I could've worked under this summer. She bought me lunch on Friday after my last organic exam. I don't think I'll ever lose contact with her. She's been a real inspiration, and I hope to someday have a life similar to hers.
6.) to ORGANIC CHEMISTRY!! NEVERMORE (er...depending on if I get above a C!...)
7.) to Michal Lynn, Art History, Special Collections, and Tennessee buddy who's been such a wonderful part of my life for three years! But we shall meet again, ML...Italia? Fulbright?...

...

Haven't said firm goodbyes to others though:
Hyde Park Produce, Kimbark, Ratner, Crerar, Regenstein...but whenever was the last time I was there, IT WAS GOODBYE.

And some friends I'm still hoping to see later. I have a few hours before my 5 a.m. wake-up call...

...

Two years in this apartment, and now, after shoving 3 boxes of books, 1 duffle and one LARGE rolling duffle onto three different people who will take them to Cookeville as it is convenient, and giving multiple laundry bags, tote bags, a box of books and another duffle bag (and a bed!) to the sister to take home, I have one large rolling duffle, one small duffle (for weight and run-off purposes only...it could all fit in the large duffle), and one back pack that I will take with me first to San Jose/SFO (bless you Kamilla Khaydarov and your stick-shift vehicle which I can't wait to drive with you in!), then to Nash-vegas, and then to PARIS. We'll see if I can't whittle more down to just the rolling duffle...

Songs for tomorrow:
Gregory Alan Isakov: San Francisco
Kelly Clarkson: (well, just everything)
Ladyhawke: Another Runaway
ECT ECT ECT

I am sleepy. But it is only 8ish... Must sleep on couch tonight. Goodnight, Chicago. It's been a hell of a four years. But they're over. Every last minute.

Yodel down

Words of the day: Yodel down, as put in my dream to indicate the act of putting your thumb and forefingers together to form a rectangle, leaping up in the air and then sighting yourself down through the viewfinder you've created with your fingers.

Yep, I've definitely got to yodel down today.

Resonance

Dear GRE-studier,

I intensely admire you with your GRE vocab study book on the table in front of you and the Chinese-English online dictionary open in a window on your computer.

I wish I had a translation service from my brain waves into organic chemistry (Watson & Crick minus the controversy?) brain waves and back.

Saw a few art history friends for lunch, whittled away more of my belongings after the gym, and then tried to memorize reactions in Crerar Library. I think storage has reached its maximum in the cranium.

People should be more like molecules: resonance stabilized so that even if you're feeling negative energy coming from one side, you can find somewhere where that extra energy is needed to form a better connection to someone or something else. I'd swap that extra negative lone pair on you, oxygen, for a double bond any day.

Or maybe I could be a hybrid.


Sincerely,
Frustrated orgo student

1st of the blogonauts

Instead of doing homework, I am thinking about

1) Lab instructor's pointy vampire ears
2) Soon-to-come trip to San Francisco
3) Sistors and how awesome we all are and how lucky I am to have them
4) How my skype headphones better just stay stuck together with tape after I stepped on them the other night. They just BETTER!

Words of the day a few days ago:
Marigold
being read by a handsome fellow on the El in a book about herbs.
Riot
there was some kind of leaflet flying about that struck my eye.

No words today. It was lab day.