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Thursday, May 13, 2010

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!

14 comments:

Ellen said...

You could always blue yourself...



too good to pass up: genesown

Leah said...

I made that asparagus pesto and it was FABULOUS over broiled shrimp.

CëRïSë said...

Ellen: "There's got to be a better way to say that."

Leah: The NYT recipe, right? It was so delicious--very mild and creamy.

Mumsie said...

...and Dad and I are coming in June!

m said...

isn't it hilarious how no matter how friggin awesome life is - we can still blue ourselves (hee)? we humans are quite amusing.

i want to visit you.

also, bamensho.

CëRïSë said...

Mumsie, indeed! Very exciting.

And Mandy, you should absolutely come visit. No question!

Powered by Tofu said...

Thanks for the comment, it made me laugh :) And love the Tobias pic, hadn't seen that, too funny!

strovska said...

i love the photo mosaics, and those squirrel pictures are darling. he's obviously less paranoid about bites from small creatures than i am.

Adrianna said...

Sorry you feel blue, it doesn't seem like you. Also, Facebook is deplorable because who wants to post about the bad things? It should be called Bragbook.

CëRïSë said...

Tofu: David introduced me to your blog; I love it! Mind if I link to you?

Strovska: I too was nervous about bites! I generally dislike squirrels, but I'll admit that these babies were awfully cute. Our neighbor took three of them to a local "rehabilitator" the next day, and when we found the last one still in our yard, we took her there, too.

And Adrianna, "Bragbook" is genius! I feel much better already. =)

Larissa said...

Hi!

I have been looking at gardening stuff and came across this really cool blog. Thought it might cheer you up since it is in your beautiful city!

http://www.urbanton.com/2010_05_01_archive.html

Cheered me up!

CëRïSë said...

What a cool blog, Larissa! Thanks for sharing it.

Ern said...

I hate the happy facebookers when I'm feeling glum too.

Sorry you have to TA, I'm crossing my fingers for your preference!

Also, everyone seems to be going to Santa Fe these days. I think I need to take a nice trip to NM myself.

CëRïSë said...

Thanks, Erin! NM was definitely pretty cool--but then, so is MN, so please feel free to come visit me here. We have lots of birds!