hoo boy.

I almost forgot about these screenshots I took for blogging. A real winner of a poll from my hometown newspaper. Of course, there are many design flaws with a poll like this, and the answers...oh, my. And I mean the percentages of the answers, of course, and also Brian pointed out several problems with the wording of the answers supplied by the newspaper.

walk across campus? meh, i'm a bus rider now

Well, maybe. I decided after having to walk 30 minutes in the rain this morning -- on my way to a test, no less -- that I had to bite the bullet and make myself believe I could master public transportation. Because who wants to sit through another test with soaking wet feet? And I guarantee you I am going to be cranky and whiny when it is cold/there is snow on the ground. Already we didn't make it out of the 40s today. Summer is going out with a bang, eh? Mostly, I didn't know how exactly to use my ID bus pass, what pick-ups/drop-offs are the most efficient, how much before a stop do you pull the cord? You can laugh, but up until now, I have lived in a town with a population around 20,000. I asked someone about the bus pass. Check. I've looked at route planners a number of times, but it never recognizes addresses I put in, only intersections, and I have not yet figured out how to get it to recognize a bus stop I KNOW is there and is the one closest to my building. I still didn't know about signaling for a stop, but I just went for it. And I made it home. And I made it back to campus. Given that it is supposed to be rainy and cold the rest of the week, I will probably do it again. I'm glad I finally just went for it.

In other news: a good supper. Nothing fancy or likely original (but I didn't get it from a recipe).
Ingredients:
- 1 lb. ground beef
- half of a medium onion, diced
- one garlic clove, minced
- small can of diced green chiles, drained
- 8 tortillas
- 6 oz tomato juice
- 3 oz tomato sauce
- however much cheese you want

Brown the beef and sautee the onion and garlic in the same pan at the same time. When beef is done and onions are translucent, mix in the green chiles. Divide mixture among the tortillas, roll up burrito or enchilada style (is there a difference?), and place in a lightly greased baking pan. Mix together tomato juice and tomato sauce. Pour over the top. Cover with foil and bake at 350* for 10-15 minutes. Sprinkle cheese on top and bake another 10-12 minutes. I also salted a few things in the process (mixture in pan, tomato mixture).

apparently i should walk across campus more often

Although walking across campus is long-ish and sweaty (didn't you want to know?), it does make one's day more interesting. For example, today...

...I saw an undergrad wearing an Odyssey of the Mind 1995 t-shirt. Given that he is probably 10 years younger than I am, I assume it was a sibling's or was a sweet find in a thrift store. I refrained from informing him that I had participated in that event...in that actual year...that 1995 was the year we went to the World Competition!!

...I got to watch many skateboarders. I love to watch skaters' bodies move -- I think it is awesome and beautiful. I have long wanted to be a skater (and a break dancer, by the way). I think I got my skateboard for my 8th birthday, but I was never good. Maybe someone here would like to teach me.

...For the first time I saw someone on campus I know! That is, outside of my program and away from my building. It was Dan of Dan & Sara, our family housing "friends" (as in, we have met them and talked two other times...but they seem so cool, I wish we were real, true friends). He is probably the only other CU student I would even know on campus, so my odds were really quite low: 1/29,000.

...I saw a dude attempt to ride his bike UP concrete steps. And he was probably in his late thirties, not an undergrad trying to be awesome. It was pretty much a fail.

...Walking across campus gives me multiple opportunities to see the most awkward man on campus: the construction worker whose only apparent job is to stand on the sidewalk by an opening in the construction fence, presumably to keep those wily students from entering the construction zone. Seriously, he just stands there on the sidewalk while tons of students pass him. I got to see him three times today: at 7:45 am, 10:55 am, and 2:05 pm. I guess he was off by the time I went by again at 3:55 pm.

2 tales

**UPDATE on the water story below**

Here are two tales from my last week.

I've told a number of you about this already, but my first assignment for Stuttering Therapy and Research was to go out in public with two of my classmates as witnesses and pretend to severely stutter to three different strangers. If you are unfamiliar, severe stuttering includes not only frequent, severe speech disfluencies (part- and whole-word repetitions, prolongations, blocks), but also secondary behaviors to try to get out of the stuttering patterns (such as head jerks, interjections, foot stomps, tongue protrusions). Needless to say, I was quite wary of this assignment, though I understand the point of attempting to get a glimpse into what a severe stutterer experiences. I also felt some ethical dilemma with this assignment due to the attempt at emulating what people actually have to go through in their lives. I think my ultimate fear was -- and I will admit, the chance of this happening is quite small -- pretending to stutter to someone who actually does and him/her knowing I was faking. What if s/he thought I was making fun? Anyway, I got through the assignment and experienced some interesting reactions from those I interacted with, including avoidance, giving the answers to my questions to my classmates with me instead of to me, finishing my words or sentences for me, and even physically sliding away from me to more directly talk to my classmates. I am grateful that part of it is finished and I can focus on the paper instead. Plus, we got to celebrate that part being over with happy hour at Beau Jo's with the rest of our year (people I am really enjoying, might I add).

Today when I got home from my morning classes, I discovered a very large pool of water on our bedroom floor. There was no water trail from the bathroom or evidence that the bathroom had been wet (what I thought would be the most likely source of this problem). I called emergency maintenance. It was determined the water was entering our apartment at the wall that is shared with our neighbors. Awesome. Maintenance went to their apartment and could not find the source of the problem either. I was in the office a while ago and was informed they never did find the cause, so I am just keeping my fingers crossed that it does not happen again. Wonderful. Also, since we moved most things from our bedroom floor to our living room, I am just surrounded by stuff right now. I'm not sure what to do with it since we don't know what kind of water this even is. I'm waiting for Brian to get home to decide with me if we need to try to clean the floor or all this stuff or what. We will definitely have to launder our bedding and cloth items that were on the floor. Gross.

**UPDATE**
So earlier this evening there was a knock on the door. I answered it, and it was apparently my next door neighbor (3.5 weeks here, and I have not seen one other person on our hall yet). He has a maintenance note in his hand (they leave them on your door if they come while you are not home) and asks if I got one too and what was going on. At least, that is what I got; I am pretty sure he is not a native English speaker. I explained that they thought the source was his apartment but had not exactly found it. What followed next continues to baffle me and Brian still. The guy says (again, as far as I could make out) that he meant to call because he noticed water on his floor LAST NIGHT but FORGOT! What?! And apparently WENT TO BED?? How is this possible. Then he says, "And when I woke up [makes gesture with his hand about how high the water on his floor was in the morning -- like 4 or 5 inches]." And still, NO CALL TO MAINTENANCE?? Why, oh why, was I the first person to call maintenance after it had completely filled one apartment so much that it went out under the wall into our bedroom leaving behind about 1.5 inches of water?? Does. Not. Compute.

it's been 11 days

Since we left KS. Our leaving was kind of undramatic, likely because we left in two shifts. My parents and I left mid-morning to ensure arriving in time to get keys to the apartment, and Brian and his parents left in the afternoon. This is because packing up our house turned out to be a much bigger project/take way more time than we thought it would, so they stayed behind to continue working on it. In fact, our parents have done tons of work in the house after getting back to KS, which we feel really bad about/grateful for, and we are sure we can never repay them. This new place has been fine so far, but does not (at least yet) feel like home. A few quick notes:

• Moving to a new state is really expensive. Suck.
• Make sure you have your address correctly memorized before changing everything. Suck.
• I got snowed on twice on Sunday. August 16. Kind of cool, but since I'm not big on snow...semi-suck.
• 425 square feet is really, really, really tiny. It is too tiny for two people. Suck.
  
• This school definitely has its differences from Bethel: 1. Today I remembered cheerleaders; 2. Our student government alone manages a $34 million budget, which is how many times the size of Bethel's overall operating budget? (I forgot to ask Brian if he remembers.); 3. A non-dry school is kind of exciting. Case in point: The big and many times repeated selling point of a back-to-school picnic for grad students was, "Beer! Free beer!" Um, yes, I'll take it!
  

i'm 14.

I passed this sign on the way back to work from the press. I turned the car around to go back, pull into the parking lot, and snap this photo. After I was done and circled around by the drive-thru to go out the exit, I saw that that side of the sign had been changed to "half-assed drinks," but in that short amount of time I remembered I'm 28 and did not roll my window down to photograph that part of the prank.

sand hill plums

A few Sundays ago I accompanied Brian on a cicada hunt. That's when temperatures were still over 100, and I was kind of a wuss. The heat sort of knocked me out, and I was not super helpful with the hunting. I was pretty good at being hot in the car. Near the end of the day at a wildlife preserve we went sand hill plum picking and that I really got into. Here is our bounty and me mashing them after cooking them. Whenever we finally have some time, we will make jelly, but for now this beautiful, tasty goodness resides in our freezer.











































I will also note that the next Sunday I went on another cicada hunt and was much more a part of it. I spotted several, and I also netted my first couple! That was exciting. I didn't completely get the hang of netting and trapping them smoothly, but I imagine I will have more chances to get better.