i climbed a mountain. visited an indian reservation. ate at a creole restaurant. went to a superwalmart. rollerbladed at the Wheels Family Fun Center. biked the american tobacco trail. changed a flat tire. cooked hamburgers.

who has this much fun? thanks alice, jackie, meghan & amy, jane, melanie.

on my list for this week: sleep. schoolwork. workwork.

last night some of the first year silsers (marissa, larissa, and shauna) had a sayonara to summer/aloha autumn party. somehow i happened to be the ONLY second year there (thanks to jane), until i called patrick and told him there was copious beer that needed to get drunk.

maybe this is the nature of things. the first years are taking core classes, the second years are thinking about master’s papers; the first years are getting used to being back in school again, the second years can’t wait for classes to end. but it frustrates me that as much as we (the second years) heralded the sils happy hour, there has been ridiculously little intermingling among the incoming and the outgoing students.

granted i am something of an oddity among second years. i’ve been taking sils classes since i was a junior, making me more precisely a fourth year, and i have a decent job, so i’m not out looking. i just find it surprising how stark the division between the two groups seems, and how everyone is content to let things be, on the assumption that things (relationships old and new) will somehow settle with time.

measure celebrated usaid’s intention to award us $70 million u.s. dollars with a picnic at The Farm on thursday. word is that some of our peeps will fly up to washington (dc) tuesday or wednesday to formally sign the cooperative agreement. think: “it’s raining men” but with money. ummm, and rumor has it that we will also be moving to a larger location, possibly the space that was vacated by fgi on franklin street next to buffalo wild wings. how hella cool is that?

jean’s birthday was thursday night, marianne threw her a dinner party wrapped in a surprise party inside an enigma. the gift of choice was a mix cd–something i’ll have to work on belatedly–meanwhile others should check out jean’s wishlist for ideas. patrick produced a double album of choice triphop tracks, jackie created a jackie-themed mix, complete with total eclipse of the heart. rough paraphrase of the quote of the evening “my whole blogroll is here!”

kickin’ grass rocked fridays on the front porch at the carolina inn. melanie came out and joined me, alexa, jane, and jackie who stopped by after work. phill mentioned later that he had driven by the inn and saw me surrounded by beautiful women. ah, carolina.

i went out on the durham leg of the american tobacco trail with melanie saturday morning. turns out the hardest part was just figuring out how to cram two mountain bikes into melanie’s blue volkswagen beetle. the word: it can be done. 12 miles in just over an hour–a new record–followed by a pseudo-guilt-free meal at souper salad. i was sweaty and greasy, so i figured why not head back out on some trails with patrick–which was killer until patrick’s bike started coming unglued–nothing that an allen wrench couldn’t heal–alas an allen wrench we did not have.

was lost in translation all that and a bag of chips? i dunno, it was alright, kind of random and empty. i feel like american beauty is still the horse to beat. though bill was funny and scarlett was pretty, there’s just so much beauty in the world I feel like I can’t take it, like my heart’s going to cave in.