Mrph

Internets, I am Unhappy. This is rather ridiculous, as it is finally (theoretically) spring, I live in a wonderful city, I am surrounded by loving friends and family, I have the opportunity to travel, and I do have funding for next year.

At the moment, however, I am feeling a bit blue. For one thing, I didn't get the fellowship I wanted for next year, which means I will be TA-ing next year. After a multiple-year streak of having all three of our nominees for this fellowship funded, this year they only gave us one. Boo.

Relatedly, I hate Facebook. I don't want to hear anyone's good news.

Also, it has been raining here FOREVER.

When I tried to wrest myself out of this gloom by looking at pictures of Santa Fe, where I spent last weekend and where the weather was actually beautiful and I had interesting adventures, I discovered that for some reason all the photos my camera had captured were the size of postage stamps. Sigh.

Anyway, through the magic of Picasa, I turned them into a collage for you (click for a larger view):
Here is a collage of the (again, unexpectedly tiny) adventures that ensued a few weeks ago when we discovered four tiny squirrels in the front yard:
And finally, here are itsy pictures of earlier this spring (when, pleasantly enough, the sun did shine), including flowers on the university campus and visits to Hidden Falls, the State Capitol, and Hidden Beach:
In other happy news, this has been the week of weeknight dinner parties, with one on Monday to celebrate a friend's successful dissertation defense and endoctoring, and one last night to make potato pizza for a friend and her friend, to whom she had repeatedly raved about this particular dish. Last night's was a pretty predictable affair, but Monday's was absolutely lavish. We started with lemon pasta with herbs and shaved parmesan on a bed of garden-fresh arugula; followed that with an unbelievably good salad of watermelon, goat cheese, olive oil, flaked sea salt and a dash of freshly grated pepper; and enjoyed a main course of salmon with asparagus pesto (though I forwent the fish and had my pesto with pasta) before concluding with a strawberry angel food cake from a local bakery.

Ahhhh, I feel somewhat better.

In other good news, I have finally, FINALLY! almost nailed down the dates for my Montreal research trip. And it's supposed to stop raining tomorrow, maybe. The TA preference sheet for next semester just arrived, and if I get my first choice (fingers crossed hard), I'll be okay. Cold weather makes me want to cook, so maybe I'll put together some lentil soup and cornbread before going to hear Lorna Simpson talk. And Paul and Ter are coming out weekend after next! Thrilling!