Miracles of Nature-- male readers beware

I found myself obsessively cleaning tonight. This is not an overly bizarre occurrence, as I tend to go through cycles of neat-freakery (invisible to my more obsessively clean friends, but within my messy world true marvels of dusting, organising and even sweeping. Dust pan and all.) followed by descents into slobbery, followed by denial and then sudden outbursts of frenzied clearing up. What is interesting, however, is that as I paused after picking up my 37th object-- yes, I count the things I pick up. I pick up in cycles of 5, 10, 25 and 50-- and I recalled the lesson we had on menstruation in my Female Sexuality class. Apparently, along with such glories as cramps, bloating, and irritability, one of the signs of an encroaching period is compulsive cleaning, which is apparently related to nesting behavious or something of that sort.

Do I fit the signs? Well, I'm due to start tomorrow or the day after, I have spent the combined total of a couple hours examining my stomach in the mirror and wondering when it got so darn puffy, I accused Jon of implying that I was fat not once, but four times over the course of the weekend (poor, long-suffering man), and I almost burst into tears while reading an article in Vogue. I am officially premenstrual. What is of interest here is not sharing ruminations on my cycle with my faceless and not-so-faceless tiny audience of readers, but the crazy fact that as a female, my hormones govern me to the point of making me clean up after myself, to attract a potential mate or something? Utter insanity. The body is a crazy crazy thing. I grow more fascinated by its workings by the day.

And now, continuing with this theme, I leave you with a link to an utterly hilarious Gloria Steinem article, entitled "If Men could Menstruate". I read it to Jon and he guffawed, so it's not feminaziesque in the least, and also male friendly. Do go look.

As per usual, I'm in the computer lab in the Science Center, trying desperately to write a lab report. I'm on a stupid PC, so I click on Start, go to Programs, go through the list of all the science applications they have, and... nothing.

They don't have Word on this computer. Or any kind of word processing software that I can see. What kind of world are we living in when there are 16 different applications for programming on a computer, and none for actual writing?!

Honestly

Does this sort of alphabetical order make ANY sense to you?

a,b,V, G,d, e, ZH,Z, i!? Seriously? A B V?

Russian dictionaries make me want to kill each time I look at one.

Further proof that I have the best boyfriend in the world

A propos of nothing:

"So... how is your knitting going?"

Two hats down, one on the needles, half a scarf, almost an entire handbag, and about a million projects forming in my head, thank you. But you're lovely to ask.

Four Day Backlog

I signed up for Fussy's National Blog Post Month, but it seems I've already failed at the daily blogging thing. In my defense, I have been deluged with visitors and midterms, so haven't really had the opportunity to be on the computer at length. To make up for this, fours are in order to make up for the four days I've missed.

Four things that make me happy right this very second

1. My German ex-boyfriend has a picture of himself shirtless in leiderhosen up on the facebook. Alas, I was never able to convince him to don this outfit during the time we were dating, due to the prohibitive cost of leiderhosen and the difficulty of obtaining them in rural New Hampshire, but this picture alone amused me enough to make up for the years and years that I didn't have this mental image to chuckle at. And to find attractive in a really bizarre way.

2. I went to see the Hot Chip concert last night at Paradise Lounge with three of my friends, and it was fantabulous. An entire room full of indie kids dancing. Not just bobbing awkwardly... bobbing awkwardly WITH OCCASIONAL FLAILING OF ARMS. Marvellous. Though they didn't play Sexual Chocolate, which made me very very sad. But the lead singer's glasses were green and turned flourescent yellow under the light, so that made everything alright. I didn't get any pictures, because I forgot about the existence of the camera on my cell phone, but if you go look at the website I linked to above, there's a great shot of him. And the glasses.

Also, the previous band featured a skinny malnourished-looking singer with a big voice and a propensity for jumping around, and I realised just how much I missed going to shows and seeing the random people performing and attending. They were also awesome, so I highly recommend seeing them if you get a chance.

3. I just knit a hat. I think it's may be for my brother, but it's cute enough and generic enough that it may serve as a good generic present for any male in my life (except for my frickin' boyfriend, who has to go and live in LA, where there is no NEED for knit goods, making it just THAT MUCH HARDER to get him presents).

4. I just got back a really promising email regarding an internship I really really want to do this summer. No official news yet, as I don't want to curse myself, but let's just say that it's in fashion, and I would give anything to even just walk around the company building, let alone do monotonous intern work there. Hurrah!


Four things I find slightly irritating right now

1. I am in the library.

2. I just saw a guy picking his nose in the library.

3. I am in the library because I need to study for the two Russian exams I have this week.

4. Soon I shall have to leave the library, which means no more work will be done. Agh.


Four things I am freaking out about right now

1. My computer makes burning smells.

2. The Russian language.

3. The Russian language.

4. Speaking the Russian language.

Four things that are wrong with me

1. I have intermittent stabbing pains in my right wrist.

2. My back and right shoulder start hurting terribly if I stand upright for too long.

3. I have a mysterious bump under my right eye.

4. I'm mortally afraid of doctors.

Four things that are pretty darn alright with me

1. I cut my own bangs and I actually really like them.

2. I'm not so much overflowing my skinny-size jeans right this second.

3. My friend is visiting from Paris and that is awesome.

4. I got a decent amount of sleep this weekend.

And now, I must go. Russian calls. I shall post tomorrow, if possible, or do one of these catch-up things soon.

And she's back!

Posting shall now resume. Readers, all two of you, rejoice.

I'll write something actual tomorrow or the next day, but for now...

I'm so full of pent-up energy that I'm actually twitching. I'm on the verge of screaming. Or getting up and running around the library.

But... I suppose I should actually try to apply said hyperactivity to my paper. Sigh...

Hiking Monster

Jon and I went to the Grand Canyon yesterday. Stunning, astounding, breathtaking? Yes. Hordes of foreign tourists? Hell yes! But otherwise bliss? Well...

You see, the problem was that we decided to go for a hike. Or rather my sly little eyes picked out a minute little trail running down the side of an otherwise sheer cliff, and the rest of me started jumping up and down, pointing and making animal noises, demanding that we MUST go do this. You see, I've been stuck in a car for two weeks. I have so much pent up energy/ so many calories to burn from the lovely lovely lovely amazing food I've encountered this entire trip that I'm on the brink of doing spontaneous jumping jacks. Or perhaps... even... going RUNNING. Ugh.

So, the idea of the hike would have been lovely, except for two things. Firstly-- I turn brighter red than a tomato at the sound of the word exercise. I thought about that for a second, realised that Jon would probably have to see me in rapid motion at some point in our relationship, and that after eleven months, I was a silly goose to worry about it. The second, and more important problem was that I did a semester course backpacking with NOLS. NOLS is short for National Outdoor Leadership School, and, not surprisingly, it trains you to be a leader in the outdoors. I thought I hadn't gotten anything out of it, leadership-wise, focusing instead on the glory of having spent three months backpacking and rock climbing in Wyoming, Utah and South Dakota, but apparently, when mixed with my closet control-freak and brought out onto the hiking trail, I become a regular little drill sergeant. I dictated water breaks, always pushing for the next switch-back. I timed the entire hike, and was ecstatic when we made it five minutes under the recommended time, counting said water-breaks and occasional scenery-looking breaks (always surreptitiously huffing under my breath at how LONG Jon was taking to look at the damn view.) I was quietly happy when we passed people on the way back up, and mentally mocked them for being... tired from the incredibly steep ascent. I became strangely competitive when two excessively fit Aussies passed us on the trail. Jon kept an amused smile during all my dictatorial antics, only finally succumbing and bursting into laughter when we were in the grocery store, planning for today's hike, and I suggested we should each carry a bottle of Gatorade on top of the 4 liters of water I had insisted on. He replied that it was perhaps an unnecessary precaution. I turned to him, planted my hands on my hips and stated: "Sweat. Electrolytes."

We both managed to keep our faces straight for three whole minutes.

In other news, I am knitting this in Elspeth Lavold Silky Wool instead of the recommended merino and my knitting has miraculously stopped sucking and started being awesome! Hurray!