one hundred seventy-six

And I'm going home!

This month is going to be the hardest of the semester. Unexpected projects led to unexpected stress. Unexpected snow led to unexpected cancellations of visits. I'm still working on putting visits back in order, resecuring my exhaust system to the bottom of my car (big thanks to Dad), reorganizing and editing my thesis... and translating. Somehow, the ten hours of translating I'm getting paid to do completely ran away from me this week.

But the past two days, largely thanks to a bug mug and a strong roast, have been a bit more organized. Granted, there has been a lot more Nutella and a lot less yoga than I'd like, but I'm taking what I can get. I have had my nose in so many books that I think one sneeze could completely confuse my entire education. The next goal for the morning: Ethics in Media Communications, Chapter 5.

The class isn't until Tuesday, but it's such an easy thing to cross off of my index card to-do list. It's more more thing that I won't have to do while watching Eight and a Half with my mom... or A Good Year. I'm really craving some time in the living room on the new, puffy carpet, just being.

I'm also really looking forward to showing Mom the broaches I got and starting to seriously think about how to turn them into nice pins for the mothers and grandmothers of the bride and groom come August (and it's coming fast!).

I'm looking forward to sticking 150 labels on 150 bottles of bubbles. What a huge accomplishment! We're going to be sitting really well after this weekend.

I'm looking forward to taking my sister to Lucky Steer for hot chocolate, served in a personal tin pot to keep it warm each time you refill your cup. And the whipped cream, oh the whipped cream. Maybe some fried potatoes. Maybe an eggplant Parmesan sandwich from the Beer Barrel. Maybe some stuffing from the freezer, made at Thanksgiving and full of toasted walnuts. Maybe mug after mug of coffee. Maybe I can convince Mom to make that giant pinwheel roll with me for breakfast. Ok, let's be honest. I'll end up eating toast anyway.

It is going to be a good weekend.

In news of France, apartments are lining up left and right. Actually there is one on the left and one on the right: one renting from a student who inherited the apartment from his parents and is renting it for cheeeeeep because he is a good person; one from an apartment company that will have a good amount of foreign students. Tons of pros on each side. The only con for each that I can find right now:

• We may not be able to get the paperwork in time to reserve one for the parking company.

• The guy's renting a 3-bedroom apartment in France for 350 euros (a seeming impossibility--their apartments are NOT this size), so I'm wondering if other people can have the other bedrooms... I don't want that.

So we'll see! We may have a home with a real French landlord, one that we can talk to and practice French with and be forgiven by if we're confused by the bank and send our rent late, on that will love us and hate for us to go. Notice how I instantly make him my first French friend. He's a student at the university I'm affiliated with, so you never know. Shoot, we may even ride the bus to school together (since I have NO idea how to get anywhere otherwise).

He can have a girlfriend and we can go on double dates. We can have dinner together. He will say, "Oh, nevermind the rent! I'm so glad to have met you," but his syntax will be bad because he is French. Ok, now I've gone to far. He will make "I" lowercase and start sentences without nouns. He will laugh at the way we don't smoke and the way we mumble our French so as not to be caught mispronouncing things.