Bullets for You

Bullet points because I have no narrative flow today (not that I do any other day, but whatever):

-I finally got my ID card today! Whoo! Now I can get it set up so that I can swipe my way into the building and I will be able to get into my office anytime I feel like it. Apparently I can even get into the building at 2 a.m. if I feel like it (although wow, I really hope that doesn't become a regular occurence). I also have library access now, which I have a feeling will come in handy pretty much right away.

-I am very proud of myself because other than eating out with my cousin on Friday night and having lunch with Mari on Thursday, I have only eaten healthy foods out of my refrigerator and pantry for an entire week. And I'm feeling really good about myself because a friend was looking at the pictures I posted online the other day and he commented that it looks like I have lost weight. I haven't been actively trying to lose weight, but I have been trying to eat healthier foods. I'm not dieting because I'm incapable of dieting (and frankly, I don't need to diet, I'm well within the healthy weight range for my height) but I've been trying to do various things: drink more water and less soda, eat at least one fresh fruit or vegetable every day, etc. I also worked out a lot this summer and did a wider variety of workouts than I had been doing, and I hope to keep that up as long as possible into the semester. I always do my twenty days a month no matter what because I need that physical activity, it's just that some months a 25 minute walk with the dog counts as a workout and other times I'm better at actually doing a 40 minute "real" workout. So yeah. Personally, I don't feel like I have really lost any weight and this past week I was actually feeling more blah than usual about my body (generally I more or less like my body) so it was nice to hear from a friend that I look okay.

-The department's graduate student group is having a getting-to-know-you barbecue on Friday night. I'm a little concerned that everyone going will have husbands/kids/significant others with them because they are all invited as well, but I'm going to go anyway. I really do need to put myself out there if I expect to make friends here, and skipping the first organized function of the year wouldn't be starting out on the right foot. Plus there are worse things than being the only single girl in the room. Actually, I feel very relaxed and even--dare I say--satisfied with my single state lately. I don't know what has caused the change from last year when I very much wanted to be with someone to now when I can honestly say that most days I care very little about the fact that it's just me by myself. I don't know if it's just settling, or acknowledging how nice it has been not to have a "two body" problem in deciding to come here, or realizing as I set up my own household yet again that I really do sincerely love living by myself, but I really do feel satisfied, at least for now. So that's not what I'm worried about. No, I'm wondering what to bring to the party. It's BYOB and bring your own food to grill, but I'm wondering what that means. For the food part I think I'll just bring a pack of hotdogs or bratwurst or something along those lines because even though we're just supposed to bring our own food (I think) it's not like you can buy just a single hotdog anyway and it's kind of a nice gesture to bring stuff to share. But on the drinks part the host wrote "bring your own bubbly beverages" and I don't know what the heck that means. I'm sure she's just trying to be cute and didn't mean to be confusing, and I'm sure I'm just overthinking the hell out of this, but I don't know what to bring. Normally I'd just bring a six pack of beer, but I don't consider beer (or liquor) particularly "bubbly" so now I'm wondering if that's a subtle way of saying, "bring soda". In other words, I'm wondering if I should take this to mean it's an alcohol-free event. I can't imagine that a gathering of adults off-campus would be alcohol-free (especially knowing graduate students, ESPECIALLY knowing graduate students in my field) but I think it would sort of look bad for me to show up with my Sam Adams Summer Ale if everyone else has Pepsi. At the same time, how lame will I look if I show up with sodas and everyone else has beer? Especially since I DO enjoy drinking. That will be making a statement I don't want to make. I was talking to Kiki on the phone earlier and I mentioned this to her and first she said, "Bubby beverages? What, like champagne?" and then she suggested that I bring a six pack of Coke and have a hidden flask of Jack to pull out if it turns out everyone is boozing, thereby covering both options. Ha. So yeah, I have a few days to figure out what I'm going to do, although I think I'm leaning towards just bringing the beer. Because you know me: I somehow project a sweet and innocent image anyway, so even if I'm the only guest with alcohol everyone will figure out pretty quickly that I'm not an alcoholic, but considering how hard I always have to fight against my perceived naivete and innocence, it's going to be a lot harder to overcome an early reputation as a teetotaler.

-My neighbor across the parking lot is a little odd. Let me preface this by saying that when I first looked at this complex back in May the leasing agent told me, "You can paint or do whatever you want to the apartment as long as you change it back to its original state before you move out. Oh, but you can't, like, install a fishtank into the wall or anything structural like that. A guy wanted to do that and I had to tell him that this isn't MTV Cribs." Well, as soon as I moved in I figured out what resident she must have been talking about: Guy Across the Parking Lot. Because whenever I walk by his apartment at night an eerie purple glow is coming through the blinds. I can only hope this glow is from fish/reptile tanks. He also has a gigantic fake owl sculpture sitting on his balcony. I think it's one of those things that is built to scare live birds away, but it still scares the crap out of me when I see it out of the corner of my eye in the dark. Then the other morning I was out walking my dog pretty early and I noticed that he was burning incense on his balcony. Why? Who burns incense outside? What's the point? (I have never really understood the point of incense, period, being more of a scented candle girl myself, but that's beside the point). But here's the kicker: yesterday afternoon he sat outside on his balcony for twenty minutes playing a recorder. A RECORDER. What 40+ year old man (he looks at least that old) plays the recorder?! And may I add that he was playing Amazing Grace in a very stilted, halting manner, leading me to believe that he is new to this whole recorder-playing thing. Or maybe just really bad at it. Luckily it started pouring down rain so he had to cut his little community-wide concert short. But seriously, the recorder? Do we all need to listen to this guy play a wooden flute usually reserved for the 10-and-under set? Truthfully, I can't really complain because it was 4:00 in the afternoon, and I always figure that at that time of day you're allowed to make pretty much any kind of noise you want. Mostly it just made me laugh, so I had to share it with you.