dreariestsirius

Spent most of the day mixing peach, white, and black Sculpey into grey mortar for a stained-glass-blob pencil cup for David for Christmas, despite a moderate amount of company. Amy and Allen stopped by for lunch, so we took them to Southwell's and had a nice time. Allen hadn't heard of the Manic Street Preachers, which surprised me, since I think of him as knowing nearly everything about the kind of music I know nothing about. And I was underinformed before; he manages a club, now, rather than just tending bar, and he DJs. I got to tell him about at least one band he didn't know. They liked the Southwell's burgers, though it turns out Amy doesn't want us over for Christmas, so that'll be weird tomorrow with nowhere to be, especially since David's not back from Mexico yet. Mama and I plan to go see Avatar and maybe Sherlock Holmes if the lines aren't too ridiculous.

In between mashing Sculpey I also hung out with Joy a little before we took her to the airport (she's going to Mexico for Christmas to meet her boyfriend there). I gave her the tree I made, and sure enough, she thanked me a little resentfully for giving her a present. Ah, well, I liked making it for her.

So mama and I got back from the airport, via a spectacular downtown sunset, and watched half a season of So You Think You Can Dance while eating chocolate. I may make a pie tomorrow. Or more fried oranges. Mmm.

I spent all day at Susan's! We had much of a time. I even made fried oranges for her.

I came downstairs to see if watching an ep or two of Angel was in the cards, and found my mom sorting through all the tapes to see what to get rid of and what to keep and what to convert to some less ephemeral medium. All kinds of ancient things in there, books on tape from when I was tiny but I still remember them, boxes full of my dad's recordings, other boxes full of my mom's, a good number of taped lessons with my first (incompatible) voice teacher, tapes of myself playing things I'd composed so I'd remember them, mystery green and ancient Radio Shack tapes that won't play on one tape player and won't rewind or fast forward on the other (or play more than 3 seconds at a time without unraveling from inside the shell and tangling). Lots and lots of tapes.

It was obvious even before I came back to Houston that I missed the SUN. I've spent at least an hour lying in the front yard in the glorious pools of buttery vitamin-D catalyst every day since I've been back, and today it was definitely at least three. It's so good to have all day to just read a book or three. The need for some kind of activity besides lying around did make itself known, though, so I traipsed happily off to the Rice campus. There are a couple reddish and yellowish trees around, but most of them, to my eternal joy, are evergreen liveoaks, which just get a little sparse and filter the sunlight through dapply tunnels. That and the prevalence of plants in general are definite advantages the lower latitudes hold over the more northerly climates.

As I was waiting at the light to cross the street onto campus proper, the blithe strains of Boston's Don't Look Back ringing in my headphones, a car passed and rolled down the windows with a mighty shout and a wave. It even pulled over once it had cleared the intersection, apparently waiting for me. The light turned and gave me a chance to catch up, and it was Ted! My voice teacher's husband, my (and all the other singers') favorite Italian teacher, and renowned classicist and generally dapper figure. Turns out he'd shouted "Buon Natale!" as he recognized me and my hair, surprised to see me in town. He's on tenure-track now, and hardly a professor deserves it more. He's exceedingly compelling as a teacher.

I ambled happily around campus and spent a little time in the library, browsing Linguistics and getting unexpectedly snagged by some psychology titles. Since I forgot my accidentally-purchased-from-the-library Debussy score in Boston, maybe I'll do an a cappella arrangement with reference from the one here.

So, basically, yay for the sun.

Innnteresting. I don't think it's ever been this close to Christmas ( without a plan for what we're doing )

My dog's tooth fell out. Not just broken off at the root, but actually the whole two-inch slab. He seems to be okay, but that's pretty weird. There's a big hole where his canine used to be.

Rar rar.

Also:
http://imgur.com/gallery/EKWDE

I got a good 12 hours in with Dan and Joodles, hanging. They actually came with my mom in the car and met me at the airport. I've rarely felt so loved. We used the time very concentratedly together, playing with the internet, jamming (Dan started on guitar, Joodles had his, and I mauled around on my cello), eating Southwell's, playing with Ella at Dan's watching him pack for his trip tomorrow, playing more music, cuddling, and writing at least half a song, all before they had to sleep. I really did miss them so much. I gave Joodles his late late birthday present as we waited around outside my front door and avoided separating before he left for the evening. I am now stupidly tired. But I finished the last last thing of this year, the raga test, before it became mentally impossible.

Brent apparently has a class exclusively on B9. He is now cramming for its final. Tony went to bed ages ago, but I'll see him in Houston, so I'm playing on the internet working on another birthday present for mama and occasionally helping Brent study. I've been keeping him company and acting as a sounding board for ideas on 18th-19th century historical context and various academic vocabulary definitions. This reminds me of the Barnett tests of Doom (TM) in my own undergrad. Awww. Nostalgia. I used to stay up all night cramming for music history tests. Now I'm just staying up all night because I'm leaving soon and someone else I like to spend time with is cramming for a music history test.

We're managing to make serious inroads on a lot of the food left over from the motet party. I ate all of the huge box of salad. All of it. Brent only helped a little. And he put some of the cranberry brie on his sandwich. Carol ate all but three of the tangerines when I fried them for her. I finished the blueberry rice off the day after Derek left it here. I just finished one of the quarts of egg nog. Tony's been steadily hacking at the chickens. I've been steadily hacking at the plate of fudge, as has Brent. We'll get it all done before the apartment is vacated for the break. Except maybe the bread. There's an awful lot of bread. Hopefully the mouse won't convert it all into little presents while we're gone.

AHH doomful final. I rocked my Motet paper presentation, turned in the paper, which turned out to be more of an anthropological/psychological analysis of medieval hierarchies as they affected Machaut. So interesting. That's why I sit around thinking about SCA hierarchies and their relevance to medieval psychology. The paper was days early but I finished it this morning since I'm skipping town tomorrow at 6am, and went home to spend an hour with mama before he had to leave for her own plane. I even piled some with Brent. Tony was busy with his Mozart test.

I have one final left, my Ragas & Talas take-home, and the logistics of listening assignments in that class continues to be a source of frustration. Everything is in the library, but in various places on various cds, and I spent awhile in the library and left before realizing it. I don't have the whole track of a piece for which I need to describe the tala, and the tala doesn't start until after my copy of it fizzles out and freaks the cd player. A fellow classmate was kind enough to upload another track I was missing to a filesharing site, so I got that bit done, but I will either have to go back to the library (unlikely, since it's only open for another half-hour) or prevail upon my classmate's kind nature to send me the other track.

At least it's cool stuff to listen to, even though it's still mostly over my head. Takes a lifetime to be familiar with ragas even as an audience, let alone a performer (luckily that wasn't an aspect of this class).

Tony's back and freaking about the awesome role he got in the spring opera, and Brent should be back from his studio recital (which he asked me not to stay for) sometime soon so he can stay up all night studying for something he has tomorrow. I have found it's more fun not to sleep before catching 4am cabs to the airport for 6am flights, so I'll keep him company and waffle around and wait for the other piece of Dhrupad I need to finish my last final and not worry too much. It's not due till Friday afternoon, after all.

Concert rocked. I flubbed some Portuguese, but Amir told everybody he was really proud of me on those songs, so I don't think he noticed. Carol, my mom's friend who was there when I was born and lives in New Hampshire and came to the Pawnbroker concert, came to see this one too. Mama got caught up talking to Hankus, so Carol and I went back to the apartment and I made her some friend oranges. I told her some of the more pertinent facets of my recent personal mythology, and we listened to relevant music till she had to go.

Wednesday of doom to follow shower.

My motet class came over last night for a medieval party. Everybody brought medieval food, and half of it is left. Besides enjoying the class thoroughly, an ulterior motive for offering to host the party is that I knew half the food would be left over. It's really, really good.

I went to see Tally Hall live at the Middle East and it was AWESOME. They opened for Rooney, which I didn't stay to see, but the band who opened for them, the Crash Kings, were awesome and I will probably buy their album.

Guess what else is awesome? They're playing in Houston as soon as I get back, and I am now over 21. I have been their fan since I wasn't old enough to get into their Texas shows. Looking forward to seeing them again. And probably getting a merchy bit of loot.

Tickle fights are the best. I am not ticklish, and Brent says he isn't but I can tickle him, and Tony is just a totally destroyable target.

My new favorite thing ever. It combines Trek:TNG, phonology, and styrofoam nuns. I shrieked with laughter to the point that my roommates were affected. Whaddya say we make apple juice and fax it to each other.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=414TmP12WAU