1 I went to New York twice, and realized that “home” is a bit of a Horcrux to me. Little pieces of me get torn out and planted in places, and it’s just a bit sad that I can’t have all of them. I thought it would have been a relief to be in New York, but it just made me realize how much of me has been ripped out and planted in Minnesota, and begun to grow there. I know it’s not like this for many college students, and where they grew up will always be “home” to them. But my childhood home is kind of trickling away…so I am happy that little pieces of me have other places to be rooted and grow. I have found that the reason going “back home” has always been a little hard for me is because the pieces of me that are left there have been paused. The pieces that fit in there are not what I am, but what I was when I left. For this reason, it always takes a little getting used to and playing catch up to reacquaint my current self with things of my relative past.
2 I both entered and exited the month of November at First Avenue.
4 I studied more for an exam than I have since I was probably 13, did really badly, and cried.
5 I voted for the first time. I Voted No, and I voted for President Barack Obama.
6 I wrote my first real abstract.
7 On Thanksgiving, I woke up at 5am (after having gone to sleep at 3am) and went to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade with the one and only Yulia Gusarova. We stood in the military and NYPD family standing area, and no one said anything. We had wonderful holiday lattes, saw marching bands and Cody Simpson, collected confetti, and had a very us time. I then took the LIRR to my grandma’s house for dinner, then drove home, and went Black Friday shopping at midnight, and returned home by 6am. It was a good day. As are any days involving Starbucks, people I love, shopping, and confetti.
8 I did some intense Christmas shopping which has resulted in a sad lack of food in my dorm. At least I have a place to hide the Christmas presents now that my cupboard is empty.
9 A guy in my project group found my amazingly hot (yet incredibly petit) TA on Grindr.
10 I registered for classes for next semester, and 4 of the classes I wanted to take were full. Next semester looks like this: CLA 1002 Composing Your Worlds, ESCI 1005 Geology & Cinema, LING 4002 Linguistic Analysis, CSCL 3456W Sexuality & Culture, PSY 3201 Intro to Social Psychology, and PSY 3801 Introduction to Psychological Measurement & Data Analysis.
11 I didn’t shave for two weeks. I figured…hey. All the cool kids are doing it. (However, at 2:30 am on December 1st, I shaved and it was glorious.)
12 I drank wine from a teacup.
13 I participated in a psychological research project and I think I failed the tests they gave me because I misunderstood the directions. Oops.
14 I played hide and seek outside in my socks at 2 am.
15 I was taking the light rail home from MSP, and took it two stops in the wrong direction. As soon as I realized I was on the wrong train, I got off and waited at this stop in the middle of nowhere. I was the only one there and the next train wasn’t for 18 minutes. Some sketchy dude then came up to me and started speaking to me in Spanish. All I caught was “Buenos noches” and “bonita.” Then he started repeating something and getting a little angry, and I told him I didn’t understand him. Finally he annunciated a little more, and said, “Do you have husband?” I’m going to be honest here. I gave him the face. And unsurprisingly, he stopped talking to me. Then some of his friends joined him, but this relatively normal looking dude showed up on a bike and he was watching was was going on and I just ran onto the light rail car with the most people on it.
16 I Seafarered Catan like a boss.
17 Someone said, “This song requires you to feel it in your hips. If you don’t have hips, Jack and Coke will help you find them.” He also said, “We’re one big family. You love most people, and you really don’t like some people. But still…you know that guy that you really really don’t like? You’re going to end up dancing with him by the end of the night. I’ve seen it 100 times. I’ve been that guy 100 times.” Someone else said, “Now think of everyone you know. Who will do your dental work after the apocalypse?”
18 I went to a concert where they put some beautifully obnoxious black x’s on my hands, but passed around bottles of wine.
I elaborated a bit more for this month because there was an unfortunate lack of posts during November.
“I’m not confused. I’m just well mixed.” Stay fresh, my friends.
