Monday, April 23, 2007

Oh man, so I realize that my last substantial post was not only a month ago, but also slightly manic, so let's do something a little more mellow.

The big news lately is that I got into Syracuse, so I'll be a religion scholar in the fall. Moreover I will be a religion scholar in central New York, which just makes me loads of happy.

Phoebe and Dom were here for two weeks, and I loved having them here. It was like being at home in Leuven, which doesn't always feel like home. The weather was just unbelievably fantastic, and has remained so. I know it can't be good for the farmers (cf. NYT report), but it hasn't rained in like a month and the sky is always blue and the sun bakes you but it's still sweater weather in the shade... totally ideal, has done wonders for my disposition. We went to Namur and I fell asleep in the grass on top of the fort-embarkment (BOMBARDMENT!!) thing. We played hot dice and had a picnic, it was totally dreamy. I couldn't believe it worked with the three of us in this room, but it was so much fun, and recharged my batteries, I was totally de-stressed when they left.

Nevermind that I got into the program of my dreams and am moving within mere hours of my family and a great many of my friends for what might actually be slightly longer than ten months; when I first found out it felt like a ton of bricks lowered onto my chest. That's just the way this shit runs with me, I have to put myself under enormous pressure just to compensate for the fact that I really freaking hate the work sometimes. But I love it just as much, so lately I've just been trying to relax and have a good time. For crying out loud I've been buried in this poop for what seems like years now and I can't writing anything intelligent?! It's ridiculous. So now I just write, everyday... I would connect this up with Lacan's logical time if I had the details at my fingerprints (sic), I'm almost positive it's related somehow. Psychoanalysis is fun.

So... I got locked onto private property with a friend (Charles) the other night. We tried to scale walls and jump spikey fences, but anyone who knows me knows I'm going to be one of the first to die if all hell breaks loose... I can't jump a fence to save my own life. So we ended up wandering into an old folks home (which was peripherally locked down like Alcatraz) and surprised one of the nurses, who threatened to call the police, even though I think she could tell we were just silly kids. It was all very weird, but we laughed a lot at the pure absurdity of it.

Yesterday my Dad went to look at a place in Syracuse for me, and signed the lease! I officially have a place to live, and John the Dad says it's by far the nicest place I've ever had. I will be living alone (with my geriatric cat Smokey, who's been in the custody of my Grandma Susie up until now), I have a dishwasher, two porches, a big living room and a bedroom, gas range, hardwood floors.... Oh it is just going to be .... I'm going to live like a human being!!! I'm so excited I'm totally beside myself. I've recognized in the last few years that I'm not the most well-balanced person upstairs, so I need my ground conditions to be as normal and low stress as possible. Alas this calls an end to my globe-trotting, but honestly, I'm sure I'm going to do a lot of travelling in my life, and what seems more important now is just to get some kind of home base established that isn't my Mother's house (beautiful and idyllic as it is). Having Smokey around will also make me happy, despite the fact that he's completely neurotic and defensive. I'm the perfect person to love a cat like that I think, I understand....

Today everything is closed in Leuven, it's some kind of holiday. No class, no library, so I have to self-motivate (argh) and finish my second chapter on schedule today. I've become totally obsessed with Bloglines, which just makes my surfing day so much easier, and you get all kinds of weird stuff if you sign up for the right feeds. Boing Boing is my new favorite, so upbeat, so weird and interesting.... I also get daily doses of celebrity gossip, which is another new passion, though I am so sick of freaking Lindsey Lohan and her idiocy it makes me want to vomit. Plus I can subscribe to all my friends' blogs and get daily updates (though I have noticed that everyone except Dana hasn't been updating their blogs... hint hint... not like I'm one to talk). I love the interwebs... Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy just posted a new entry on cognitive science, which is a really interesting (though excessively nerdy) read. Also, Charles introduced me to this internet radio program called Philosophy Talk, which despite the fact that it's almost all Analytic/History of Philosophy stuff, seems pretty awesome.

Mmmm, linky. Me and that hyperlink button are getting to be good friends... Have I mentioned that I love the interwebs? Well, I also love photos, so for those of you who are too lazy to surf to my flickr page, here are some snaps from the Dom and Phoebe vacay:

Nevermind how long that took to format... Blogspot needs to come up with some better way of dealing with photos, this is ridic. Also, just for added bonus, here's a video I took of some folk dancing (Ukrainian maybe?) that happened in Leuven one of the days Phoebes and Doms were here:




In other news, freaking NETHERY is coming on the 20th of May! I'm so excited I might pee my pants. Since he's coming nine days before my thesis is due, he's promised to read the whole thing and proof it for me. Having another nerd around is great, nevermind that he's a phenomenology nerd. It's just going to be awesome.

Anyway, that self-motivation thing needs to start happening, so I better stop with the internet stuff.

Toodles!

Cake

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