Vacations and Staycations

I just returned from a 3 day trip to Newport, Rhode Island with my mom and sort of my Dad. We went there to see my older brother graduate from the Navy Officer Supply School. It's his second time graduating from Newport, the first time was about 4 years ago when he graduated from Officer Candidate School.

Newport is always nice because my Aunty lives out there, who I rarely see because she lives in Rhode Island, which is pretty far from Minnesota. Plus Newport is very different from Minnesota. It's very East Coast.

Don't get me wrong. Everyone is very nice (unless they're driving). Newport is definitely a small, touristy town with a lot of quaint charm and history oozing from every cobblestone. But people there don't wear jeans. I don't know why that bothers me so much. Maybe khaki shorts dry faster than denim while they're sailing.

I think it's just how obviously upper-crust the whole town is. There are some not as wealthy looking areas, but they're all in Middletown, not Newport. To me, it comes off as they're too well-off to wear jeans for every day use. I'm sure that's not the intention, of course, but that's how it rubs me. To me, jeans are getting dressed enough to be presentable in public. I would happily wear yoga pants or board shorts outside if I could get away with it. In Newport, I don't even feel like I could get away with jeans.

I had a great time, though. One exception: There was a terrible storm here in Minnesota while we were gone, and I missed it! Trees down, power out, flash flooding, the works! And I had 75 and sunny weather. How boring!

Now I start my 3 day staycation. I'm going to clean and relax and not go to work and I'm going to enjoy every minute!

Summer Chill

Yes, I am going to blog about the weather. I love weather, and I love talking and learning about weather. What would I small talk about if I lived in California? "Oh, it's warm and sunny again today." Bo-ring!

Anyway, a short MN summer heatwave just ended. I am sitting on the couch, drinking hot cocoa under my snuggie. It's a nice change from being splayed out on the couch, drinking water and daydreaming about ice cream. It was nice to be able to use the stove this morning to cook my egg sandwich without making the apartment too hot for comfort.

And I'm sure the bike ride to work later today will be awesome without the sun beating down on me and the air oppressing me. And it sure was nice to be able to cuddle with my comforter last night as I slept.

But I kind of miss it. I hate being cold. Hate it, hate it, hate it. Considering I have to wear clothes 90% of the year in order to feel comfortable temperature-wise, it's nice to be able to wear a skimpy tank top and short shorts and not feel chilled at all times. Maybe I have thin skin, or maybe it's because I have a lower body temperature (97.2 F), but I am cold even now because my arms are sticking out. Lol. I am using the blanket with sleeves, but I am not using the sleeves. What's wrong with me?

In any case, I am extremely grateful that the biggest of my weather worries is slightly cooler sunny weather. All around the world, people are suffering from drought, forest fires, floods, and other extreme weather. In my Eurasian Geopolitical Energy class, we joked that climate change would benefit Russia because it would actually be warm enough for people to want to go there, which explains why they refuse to become more energy efficient. However, if climate change means that Russia will face drought, food shortages, wildfires, smog and smoke every day, they may soon be changing their tune.

Climate-change doubters need to take a look around the world this summer and tell me that this is all coincidence. The most extreme weather in recorded meteorological history has been increasing in incidence in the past couple decades. We're destroying our Earth as we know it. Life will go on, of course, but billions of people will suffer, and our ecosystems will be completely different. We're definitely entering an unknown future. Who knows what will be safe, and what will still exist in 20 years? Who knows if we will exist in 20 years? We will reap what we have sown, and we have no one to blame but ourselves. The environment rarely changes rapidly, but we're causing it to change faster than it should.

"Be the change you want to see in the world."

And people don't understand why I don't like driving, or using AC, or eating feedlot animals.

"If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make a change."

Rainy Day

It hasn't snowed here. Yet. It might tonight, but today was just chilly and wet. It was honors day at school, so whoever had a living sugar daddy (aka an endowment scholarship from someone who is still alive) had to go to a ceremony type thing. I have a dead sugar daddy scholarship, so I didn't have to go. Because it usually goes late and into the 10:45 class time, my 10:45 class was cancelled. So, I had a lot of free time this morning to do homework and take an extended shower.

The homework I was working on was my political science presentation, which was supposed to be 5-10 minutes long, but I took 20. That's all right though. I had a lot of info, and we only had 3 presentations for a 55 minute class.

In any case, it was an odd day. It's been a long day. I realized it wasn't Saturday just a couple hours ago. Still Friday, I guess.

Day 25 - Burea begins!

Today, we gave group presentations. My group presented in the afternoon, so we worked through lunch. We just grabbed burek from the bakery and finalized our presenation. Part of our finalization was working with Meichen's accent so people could understand her more easily. She has difficulty separating her words and ennunciating her consonants. Her part was much more understandable than in previous presentations. We did well, though. Yay!

After, everyone came back to the hostel to work on individual presentations. I don't present til Thursday morning, so I don't have to get much done tonight. 17/25 of the class present tomorrow, so I'll be fine.

For dinner, everywhere is closed! The weather is too cold, so restaurants close to minimize losses because no one goes out to eat. All the restaurants we were going to go to were closed, so we wandered around until we found an open place. We found this tiny little cute restaurant on a side street as we were heading to the harbor to see if those restaurants were open. Inside, we met a cute tiny little older lady who spoke Slovene, Italian and some German. In our group, we speak English, French and Chinese. So, we managed to order 2 fish dinners and 1 meat dinner, 3 teas and 3 risotto with meat. The risotto was amazing! Just white rice with beef chunks and gravy. I ordered the meat meal, so I got 2 pork chops, fried potato slices, steamed peas and carrots, with a salty gravy. Delicious! The fish were just two fish with some potatoes and spinach. Also looked delicious. Then she brought out the aperitifs. She pointed to one and said ˝sherry˝ then the whiter one and said ˝grapa˝. I poured out some sherry for the three of us. It wasn't bad. Drinkable. I poured out half a shot of grapa. I took a sip. Holy hell. It was worse than vodka. I then sat there for 5 minutes dreading finishing the half a shot. Then I got the idea to squeeze a lemon into the glass. So much better! Drinkable, anyway.

The bill was €91! The fish cost €45. It was a relief to me because my meal was only €19, not €36. Awesome!

Anyway, I suppose I could go do research now. Le sigh...

Bonus!

So, I guess I'm bored. I've been sitting in Avant Garden since 11:30ish. I've still got another hour and a half til my mom comes to get me at 4:30. I've caught up on ANTM and Glee. I've harvested and planted everything on farmville. I don't have any more email to write. I could look into finding art or posters to hang in our apartment, but I've already started this post and it'd be a little silly to stop now.

Ergo, post number 2 of the day.

I had a very up-and-down past yesterday.
Up: I got a ride to school so I didn't have to walk in the rain.
Down: My backpack was thoroughly stuffed, so it was atrocious even though I walked a mile less than normal.
Up: We had an interesting discussion about bodies in anthropology.
Down: I felt really disenfranchised that while we talked about male, female and intersex biological sexes, we talked only about men and women as genders in the context of St. Olaf. There are trans students on campus, me included, and he knew it.
Up: Russian politics was interesting and engaging.
Down: No one recognized my suggestion in Asian Politics as valid, and discounted it before I had even finished. It was too valid.
Up: I got my N64 games in the mail!
Down: I got a cold.... possibly swine flu, but so far it's just a runny nose and sore throat and a stuffy head.
Up: Work was easy and drama-free.
Down: I was working while sick.
Up: I got to leave work for 20 minutes to go present to the Student Organizations Committee so we can get SANRA recognized as a student org.
Down: They ran out of meatloaf AND mashed potatoes before I got to eat. Although the turkey was good.
Up: I played pokemon snap for a few hours because I had no homework.

Yeah, that was pretty much it for yesterday. Today, aside from the cold weather and my cold and lack of sleep, it's been a pretty good day.

Shakespeare in Love

Today was an almost perfect day for me. For the general metro area, not so much. There was a tornado in downtown Minneapolis but the sirens didn't go off until the tornado was already causing damage. I think people in the cities don't really expect tornadoes downtown and it's harder to look for them because there is limited sky visibility downtown. I know I only look at the sky when I'm on 3rd and Hennepin, because there's parking lot that makes it easier to see.

Another bad thing about today: the mail didn't come. The rain and two tornado warnings screwed up the mail. I'm a very systematic and scheduled person. I don't like spontaneity when I'm at home. On days when Mom takes the newspaper, I wander around the house during my breakfast hour, at a loss for what to do after I eat in 10 minutes instead of 45-60.

Other than that, though, it was a perfect day. It was chilly enough to wear not only sweatpants, but a long sleeved shirt AND socks. : ) With a blanket and tea, I was one cozy dude. It was raining and gloomy outside, which is one of my favorite weather conditions. I read a lot, tried to do the crosswords (I can do Monday and Tuesday, and almost no other day), sewed my blanket and watched Shakespeare in Love.

It was a very good movie. Historically inaccurate, but a great movie. The beginning was a little slow and confusing, but I got into it very easily. What fantastic dialogue and plot and interesting connections and unique characters. I can see why it won Best Picture. Plus, it has the most stimulating sex scenes. They recite lines from Romeo and Juliet while making love. Fantastic! It's a good love story, painfully beautiful and woefully realistic. I was sad that one of my favorite male romantic actors (Colin Firth) was the bad guy. But overall, I approve. : )

Too bad the sirens went off when I was watching it, so I had to turn the movie off to check the weather. Luckily, the crappy meteorologist was on, so I didn't get sucked into the weather like I normally do. I also finished all the squares on my blanket, so now I can start putting it together!

I really enjoyed today.